John 16:1-6 These things have I spoken to you, that you should not be offended.… He says, not that He is going the way of all the earth, because He was not going as all flesh must go, from the necessity of man's nature, but of His own will. All things which He suffered on earth were a going to His Father, a fulfilment of His mission, and the way by which He was to return to Him that sent Him. By His cross and passion, by His sufferings and death, was His kingdom to be set up and His throne established. And by reminding His disciples of this truth He seeks to assuage their grief, and to prevent their being offended in Him, since, however greatly He should be humiliated, and however many His sufferings might be, they were all but a going to His Father, all but the means by which His glory was to be made known unto men. This thought was the consolation of the Man Christ Jesus, and with the same thought He consoles us. The oil from the head of our Great High Priest flowed down to all His members, even the oil of gladness to comfort them in all their troubles. The whole of this present life of man is one continual going either to God or from Him. All thoughts and deeds of our daily life are either separating us from our heavenly Father or drawing us towards Him in whose presence we are at all times. It is our vocation to pass through life into the glory of our Father; and our duty to remember that whilst all is shifting around us, the Christian's career is in itself a going the way to Him that sent him. (W. Denton, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.WEB: "These things have I spoken to you, so that you wouldn't be caused to stumble. |
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