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This same Spirit of Truth can be active in our lives today, illuminating the difficult
passages of Scripture, bringing to our remembrance other more distant texts that
complement the truth we are studying, and over all, bringing us into closer knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of His Father.
". . . . . the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me; but I do as the
Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father" (14: 30,
31, R.V.).
Satan had no power over our Lord for at all times He was completely sinless. These
verses imply the added reason (for Christ's ascendancy over Satan), that Christ loved and
obeyed the commands of His Father. Look at our Lord's three temptations in the
wilderness. In each case Christ recited the commands of His Father recorded in the
Scriptures. Such steadfast loyalty and response demonstrated the love of the Son for the
Father, upholding His commands and seeking the glory of God by declaring and
conforming to the wisdom and righteousness of God.
The influence and machinations of the Devil in the world today are inextricably
intermingled with our own sinful nature with its snares of the flesh. Our steadfast love to
God and obedience towards His commands will, through the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, deliver us from these twin dangers.
Turning to another of the many references to love in this chapter:
"If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for the Father
is greater than I" (14: 28).
Why should the disciples have rejoiced? Surely some of the characteristics of love
(charity) of I Cor. 13: should supply the answer, "seeketh not her own"; "hopeth all
things". The thought that their beloved Saviour would shortly be released from all this
sufferings and would be reunited with His Father should even at that hour, have made
their hearts rejoice. Even so, as we approach the last days of our earthly life, we should
equate the attendant burdens and ills of old age with the untold blessings that will be ours
in Christ and, holding fast to our hope, rejoice.
It is strange that all the Scriptures contain, like hidden gold, instruction in the ways of
God and these are His commands to us. We can use all Scripture, for as we have seen,
God has set `prophecy' and has ordained `events' to fulfil that prophecy right through the
platform of history out into the future. This way of God of prophecy and fulfillment is
like the warp and weft of a piece of cloth. While it is in one piece we see with the eye of
faith the pattern or autograph of the Designer. If we pull it apart, the warp from the weft,
in unbelief and skeptical criticism, we are left with a bundles of confused threads. May
we find joy and satisfaction in His presence by obedience to our faith.