Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. (4) The eternal glory will flow little by little from the head into the members. But meanwhile, we must take good heed that we run the race of this life in brotherly love.
Up to this moment I spoke under painful restraint; the traitor's presence within my holiest fellowship prevented the full outpouring of my heart. Now that he is gone, the embankment breaks, and living waters burst forth in triumph.
AI summary
Commenting on John 13:31-38
Little children--From the height of His own glory He now descends, with sweet pity, to His "little children," all now His own. This term of endearment, nowhere else used in the Gospels, and once only employed by Paul (Gal 4:19), is appropriated by the beloved disciple himself, who no fewer than seven times employs it in his first Epistle. Ye shall seek me--feel the want of Me.