A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35
God had already commanded the Israelites to “love your neighbor as yourself” in the Old Testament. And Jesus had taught that this was the second greatest commandment. So what exactly is new about the command given in this passage? Here Jesus commands them to do more than simply love one another, or to love others as themselves; now He commands them to love one another as He had loved them. That’s new!
Believers are commanded to love other believers like Jesus loves them. What a radical command. Jesus gave His disciples this command just after He had shown them the “full extent of His love” by washing the disciple’s feet and just before He showed them “the greatest love of all” when He went to the cross and laid down His life for His friends. So even in its immediate context we can see that Jesus is calling us to a radical kind of love for one another. One that is self-abasing and prideless. One that willingly makes sacrifices to meet the needs of other believers. A love that lays down its very life to save the other. In a culture preoccupied with our own rights, Jesus commands you to be willing to lay down your very life for the person in the pew next to you.
We gain an even greater perspective on this command when we push past its immediate context and back up farther to view it from the vantage point of Jesus' life and mission as a whole. The gospel teaches that we were in conflict with God. We were His enemies. We had sinned against Him, wronged Him and robbed Him of the glory due His name. And what did God do? In Jesus, he came to us and confronted us with our sin. He showed us how wrong we had been, but then He did something remarkable. Instead of demanding we make it right, instead of demanding restitution for how we had wronged Him, Jesus made it right on our behalf. Jesus paid the price for us. At great cost to Himself He reconciled us to God. He was willing to be wronged in order to make our relationship right. Though it cost Him His life, He made peace with us.
God is a peacemaking God. That is how Jesus loved us was by making peace with us and you are called to love others in the same way. You are called to be a peacemaker, to be reconciled to one another, to keep the unity of the peace with other believers. This is the love of Jesus we are called to live out with one another. This is how we are supposed to love other believers inside and outside this church. So, if there is a believer in your church, in your family, or anywhere in the world that you are not loving in this way, then you are wrong! Repent of this. Go to them and make peace with them and love them like Jesus loves them. Love them like Jesus loved you.
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