Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Thirteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 30-35

Judas Iscariot immediately left the assembly. Only after the traitor was gone could Jesus begin to teach His disciples all of His instructions for them to believe and to do after He ascended. Also, through His written Word, Jesus taught His Church all that they should believe and do during the Church Age.

Jesus taught His disciples that He would be glorified, and God would be glorified in Him. Jesus made sure that His disciples and His Church would believe that He was God in human form. Jesus also taught them that His glorification would happen very soon so that they would know that His glorification would be in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Jesus called all of His disciples "little children." Jesus considers all of His believers to be like little children. This comports with Jesus' teaching that a person must humble themselves to God like little children in order to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:1-4. Jesus also taught that if anyone offends His "little ones," then it would be better for them to be cast into the sea. Matthew 18:6. Clearly, Jesus meant any of His believers when He said "little ones," not just small children. Since "the sea" happens to be one of the regions of death, then Jesus warned anyone who harms and persecutes His believers that they will receive a harsher punishment for their evil acts after their physical deaths. According to His judgment, He will probably cast most of them into the fires of Hell. Revelation 20:13; Hebrews 9:27.

Jesus further taught His disciples that He would not allow them to follow Him into Heaven when He ascended. Everything Jesus taught His disciples, He also taught His Church through His written Word. By this Word, He also taught His Church that they would not immediately ascend to Heaven as a spiritual body like His following their conversion, but they must wait for the Rapture of the Church. Jesus left His Church in the world to carry on His mission, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be the "light of the world" just as He is the "Light of the world." Matthew 5:14; John 8:12.

Jesus then gave His disciples a new commandment that happens to be the basis for all holiness and righteousness. Jesus taught His disciples, and His Church, that they all should love one another. The whole world would know that the Church is different from the world by the holy love that its members show for one another. God loves the world, meaning all living humans that He creates. John 3:16. But Jesus never taught His disciples to love the world. In fact, the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle John to write that His believers "Love not the world," meaning the sins and evil within every human who has not been saved by grace. I John 2:15. But the Holy Spirit gives God's Love to every believer saved by grace for the living souls and spirits of every human soiled by sin and evil so that the believer can lead them to Christ who will cleanse them and forgive them of all their sins and evil and save them by His grace the moment they repent and believe. Galatians 5:22. God's Love never causes harm to anyone. Romans 13:10. Christ's Love that He gives to His Church replaces the law in His Church because the law condemns all living humans soiled by sin and evil to the regions of death. Matthew 5:17; John 8:23-24. But God's Almighty Love cannot fail. I Corinthians 13:8. God has devised a plan that will cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and believe in the Lamb of God of their own free will so that He can save them with a lesser form of salvation than that of grace. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; II Peter 3:9-13.