Service and Betrayal

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Service and Betrayal

John 13:33

33 Little children [teknion] , yet [eti] a little while [mikron] I am [eimi] with [meta] you [humon] . Ye shall seek [zeteo] me [me] : and [kai] as [kathos] I said [epo] unto the Jews [Ioudaios] , [hoti] Whither [hopou] I [ego] go [hupago] , ye [humeis] cannot [ou] [dunamai] come [erchomai] ; so [kai] now [arti] I say [lego] to you [humin] . KJV-Interlinear

33 'Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' NASB

Four things are expressed in this verse. First, the apostles are addressed as little children. Second, Jesus again reminds them that He will be with them only a little while longer. Third, once gone, they will seek Him, or rather wish that He hadn't gone and wish that He was still with them. And fourth, the place where Jesus goes is a place where man cannot go with regard to the work performed by Christ on the Cross, and the ultimate destination of Christ, heaven, is a place where they cannot go until their time here on earth is completed.

As for the 'little children' comment. The apostles are addressed as young adults. They are adults who have not yet left the nest, never having used their own wings to go out in the world, and now they are about to be shoved out of the nest. The shock will be traumatic, needless to say.

Here the apostles are all adult men. They have been in business as fishermen, or in other occupations, so they have a certain degree of mature responsibility in their manner. But as we should know, the physical realm and the spiritual realm are totally and completely independent of each other. One can be mature as a human being both physically and mentally, and immature in ones spiritual life.

These apostles were on the immature side of their spiritual life. They knew a lot of doctrine, but they had allowed themselves to get into a comfortable rut and there they wished to remain, rather than to continue their advance in their spiritual lives. The facts of Jesus' first advent eluded them, not because they did not understand, but because they did not want to hear of it. Thus Jesus again states, 'as I said to the Jews' of whom the popular belief was that the Messiah would come and immediately set up Gods Kingdom.

Also, as little children, many questions and many opportunities of learning, from the God who created the universe and upholds all things, were missed simply because the apostles did not take the time to inquire. Once Jesus leaves them, then they will wish that they had used their time more wisely in the pursuit of Gods wisdom, rather than in becoming comfortable in a life style they wished for themselves.

Jesus Christ is about to go to the Cross for one purpose only, and that is to pay the price for the punishment of sin and death in behalf of all of mankind. No human can do this for himself let alone all of humanity. We cannot even take ourselves to heaven apart from the will of God., though there are a lot of religions and other philosophies out there that try to make that concept so. Humanity cannot define reality for his own convenience.

As for each one of us, we have our lives and the time given to each one of us by God to live our life. We can wake up and pursue our spiritual life with a vigor, or we can just cruise through life in a fog, pretending that all is well and as it should be.

For those who waste their life away and do not grow up spiritually, then sooner or later God will withdraw His support from you and pull the plug on your life. When you die, you'll probably wish that you had been more attentive and had made more of an effort in advancing in your spiritual life. Unbelievers will certainly wish for better accommodations, but it will be too late for them.

While we are alive we have an opportunity to grow up spiritually and thus enter into the ultimate winners circle for this life and for eternity. Once we leave this world, then those opportunities will cease and we will enter into eternity with whatever we have in our soul - be our spiritual content great or small.

A great deal is riding on your daily decision to keep on advancing in your spiritual life.