Love One Another - Part One
John 13 (KJV 2000)
1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
If you knew that the time had come for you to “depart out of this world”, what sort of words would you speak to those around you? What would you say to your family, friends, colleagues, church members, etc? Would you speak of things you thought were very important? I bet you would!
In His last night before He went to the cross, Jesus gave His disciples “a new commandment”. This commandment was so important that he repeated it during the night.
John 15 (KJV 2000)
12 This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Was Jesus’ commandment that His disciples should love one another really a new commandment? Loving one another wasn’t a new idea – in the Old Testament men were commanded to love God and love their neighbour. In fact, the issue of loving one’s neighbour came up in questions some posed to Jesus about the Law of Moses.
Matthew 22 (KJV 2000)
35 Then one of them, who was a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, and saying,
36 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus’ command to His disciples was that they love one another as He had loved them. “You may have loved one another as human beings love another, but now I command that you love one another as I have loved you.” It is not so much the idea of loving one another that was new, it was the idea of loving one another as Christ loved us.
Perhaps this is the first and the major challenge we have with loving one another. We want to love one another and we do love one another, but we prefer to do it with a natural, human love. We have never really committed to loving as Jesus did.
As humans, we tend to love those who love us. We tend to forgive those whose offences against us aren’t too great, and who beg and plead for our forgiveness. We tend to love our own children more than others, our own families more than others, we tend to put ourselves and our interests before others.
Jesus told His disciples that their love for one another would be their badge of identification. People would recognise them as His disciples because of their love for one another. Yet, it is obvious from the context that love for one another would identify us as His disciples only if we love as Christ loved.
The Apostle John, writing many years after the Lord’s Supper, refers to Jesus’ command as “not a new commandment”, in the sense that it wasn’t a new idea John was introducing, but one which was introduced by Jesus and is as old as our Christian faith.
1 John 2
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning.
1 Corinthians 13
4 Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,
Continue in grace!
Love One Another - Part Two
God is Love John 13 (KJV 2000) 1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 34 A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.