If we were to compare the length of our text for today to many of the other passages that we have looked at during our study of John’s gospel, then this would be one of the shortest ones. However, even though our text today has only a mere five verses in it, there is so much more here than we could hope to get into during our time together. We could spend weeks, even months, talking about all of the impactful statements that are within these words spoken here by Christ. I say this to convey to you that our look today is not an exhaustive look at this passage. I am simply choosing certain aspects of this text to focus on and fully acknowledge that there is much left unsaid about this passage today and the weight that these verses carry with them.
Before we begin, we have to remember what is going on as Christ says these words. These are Christ’s farewell words to his disciples, the beginning of his final speech to them. We are in the upper room. We have just seen Jesus tell his disciples that one of them was going to betray him. He told John, the writer of this gospel, that Judas was the one who was the betrayer, and then he told Judas to go and leave the room. Imagine John’s emotions at this point. Mind you, none of the other disciples know that Judas’ leaving was so that he could betray Jesus. John has gone from the emotional high of the foot washing event and sharing a meal with Jesus and the other disciples to now not only hearing that Judas would betray Jesus, but he has seen Jesus send Judas on his way. Jesus has in fact set the events of the betrayal into motion himself. Not only has he not done anything to stop it, but he has lit the fire so-to-speak. John has to be sitting there absolutely stunned and overwhelmed with emotion at this point.
Jesus knows what has just been set into motion. He knows that Judas’ leaving and reporting him to the authorities will ultimately end in his own bloodshed. Jesus knows full well what the string of events that are soon to come will accomplish. As he begins speaking to the eleven disciples that remain, he speaks of the coming glory. He speaks of the glory that is coming both for the Son of Man and God the Father. You see, not only will the Son of Man, Jesus himself, be ultimately glorified at the completion of what is to come, but the Father will be as well. After all, it is the Father who sent the Son into the world to begin with. Also, let us not forget that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are linked together in some way that we cannot fully comprehend in the Trinity. Christ is soon to conquer sin and Satan and reverse the conduct of Adam. While this glory is being shown, God will be glorified in that His promises through the prophets of the Old Testament will be fulfilled. God is offering up His Son as a once for all sacrifice to pay the debt for the sins of all mankind.
Do not think for one second that this is something that is easy for Christ to do. This is not something that he doesn’t struggle with. We know from the various gospel accounts that Jesus prays to his Father is the Garden of Gethsemane for this burden to be lifted. It is almost as if he is experiencing the pains of the beatings and the cross long before he is ever arrested. Jesus refers to his disciples as “little children” showing the intimacy and love that he has for them. He’s telling them that his leaving them is not something that he does out of disgust or disappointment with them, but it is because he loves them (and us as well) that he must go. Where he is going they cannot follow at this time. There is only one who could ever do the things that he has done, and there is only one who could do that which he is about to do, that which he must do.
Before he leaves, Jesus gives the disciples this somewhat “new” commandment, “to love one another: just as [he] has loved [them], [they] also are to love one another.” It’s this statement that I want to spend a little time talking about this morning. Now to say that this is a new commandment seems a bit odd. After all, in Leviticus 19:18 we are told to love our neighbors as ourselves. So, while in the wilderness, the nation of Israel was given in essence this same command. They were told that they should love one another. The questions that I think that we have to ask ourselves today as modern disciples and followers of Christ are 1) what does it mean to love one another just as Christ loves us, or even going back to the Old Testament, what does it mean for us to love our neighbors as ourselves? And 2) why is Jesus giving this command here and calling it new when the substance of the command has been around for generations?
First, what does it mean to love another as Christ loves us? Well, there are numerous places where we could look to in Scripture to find a Christian definition of love. We could turn to 1 John, an epistle written by this same gospel writer, in which he basically gives us both a definition of love as well as a commentary on Jesus’ comments about love. We could turn to the book of Genesis where we’re first given the model for marriage. Brilliant biblical scholar James Montgomery Boice says that an even simpler example is found using the book of 1 Corinthians. Now, we have all no doubt been at a wedding ceremony where these verses have been read describing the love that a soon-to-be-husband and wife have for one another. These verses are used during almost every Christian wedding ceremony, and rightfully so. They do indeed describe love for two individuals who are soon to be united as one; the words of 1 Corinthians 13 describe love. Boice proposes that we remove all occurrences of the word love in 1 Corinthians 13 and replace them with Jesus. If we were to do so, it would read something like this, “Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; he is not arrogant or rude. He is not self-seeking; he is not irritable or resentful; he does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Jesus never fails.” Very truthful wouldn’t you say? A pretty accurate description of how Christ loves us. Now, if we are to love like Christ, then we ought to be able to replace the word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13 with “I.” “I am patient and kind; I do not envy or boast; etc.” I don’t know about you, but I find myself lacking in many of the areas laid out for us in Paul’s words about love.
So, as Christ prepares not only himself for his exiting this world, but his disciples as well, he tells them that they are to love with such compassion and service. He in essence is giving them the core of the Christian faith and Christ’s own ministry. He is calling them to love to the point of serving. We have seen numerous times that he calls us to be humble, to serve, to show compassion. Now, I’m not saying that as Christians that we are to exist simply to hand out to those who don’t have. I am well aware that many in our day and age think of the church as the place to go when you need food, clothes, money, or a place to stay. Quite honestly, I don’t have it all worked out for myself yet as to where the line is drawn on these types of issues, but I know that Christ indeed does call us to love one another and not just those who are exactly like us. However, I do think that his referencing of “another” is primarily a call to show such compassion to other believers in particular.
This leads us to the second question that I want us to ask today and that is why this is called a new commandment when the principles guiding it are anything but new? We said earlier that this command finds its roots or origins in Leviticus 19:18 and then repeated in Deuteronomy 6. Well, what we have to remember is that context is king. Let me explain that quickly. When these words were given to Israel in the wilderness, they were spoken in the context of how one Jew was to relate to another. They only included those people within national Israel and excluded all others. However, when Jesus commands us to have such a mindset, then it’s a whole new ballgame. With these words, this command is given a new object; it is to be exercised according to a new measure; it is to be made possible by a new power. The object of our love is no longer someone of our own ethnicity, but anyone and everyone who looks to Christ as their Savior. The measure of love has moved from a sense of ethnic or national pride to now being those high standards that we looked at a moment ago from 1 Corinthians 13. This command to love is now made possible by a new power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the very life of Jesus Christ in every believer.
It is because of these new levels to which the command to love one another has been taken that this commandment is considered new. It is similar to how during the conversion of the Christian the old self dies and the new self is born even though our earthly bodies remain unchanged. While the principle of love remains, it has been taken to a much greater degree. Later on in this same speech, in John 15, Jesus will again repeat these words and clarify them saying, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jesus is soon to perform the ultimate act of love. He is about to show the greatest act of compassion and love that the world has ever seen. He is soon to lay down his life for our sake. When Jesus calls us to love one another just as he loves us, he is preparing the disciples (and us too) for continuing to proclaim his gospel. He is preparing us for continuing the ministry and the work that he has started. He is telling us to take the love of Christ, a love that is much more than handouts and acceptance of different opinions, into the world. The love of Christ is a love of grace and mercy; it is a love of salvation. It is a love built upon saving faith in Christ Jesus. That love, the love of Christ, is what we are now called to take out into the world and share with others. It is “by this [love that] all people will know that [we] are [his] disciples, if [we] have love for one another.” Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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