John 13:31-38
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! [1]
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What strikes me today are the familiar words of Jesus, commanding us to love one another.
But how is this a new command? It was in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18), so from one standpoint, they already knew they were supposed to love one another.
There are two things about the way Jesus puts it here that raises the bar on the simple expression “love your neighbor.” The first is that He holds Himself up as the model. Love now has a face and shape and a definition in His life. Notice that this statement is sandwiched between discussion about Jesus “going away,” which refers to His suffering and death. When Jesus says to love one another has He loves, He is pointing to the sacrificial love that He will display in laying down His life. Love is not merely a feeling of close affection, but is taking up a cross for the ones you love. (Read 1 John 3 and 4 for more about this.)
So the first part of what’s new is that He is the model. The second is that this love among His followers is to be the chief identifying mark that they are indeed His followers. In other words when people think of Christ-followers, the first thing they should think of is “Wow, they really love one another. They’re the ‘love your neighbor’ people.”
Is this the case? Is it true in my life and in my relationships with other Christians, with other people? I can’t change media and cultural perceptions of Christianity and Christians. But I can work on my own life. My prayer today is that my life would be marked by love: Love for my neighbor, love for my family, love for my fellow followers.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 13:31–38). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
