Read John 13:31-35
It is the night before Jesus is crucified. The twelve apostles are eating with Jesus that most important of all meals – the last supper.
• Jesus had just indicated who would betray Him. Verse 30 ended with Judas leaving, to do what he needed to do (in the words of Jesus, v.27).
• John, the disciple closest to Jesus asked, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus gave an answer. We do not know if John understands it.
Jesus turned His attention to the faithful ones who remained. He said, “My children”, a phrase he hardly used.
• They have been like children following Him, looking up to Him for guidance and help.
• But now He is leaving. And where He is going, they cannot follow.
They had been following Him for three years, but that’s going to end here.
• Everyone knows them as Jesus’ disciples, precisely because of this – they followed Him wherever He went.
• But now it’s going to end. They are not going to follow Him on this last stretch.
Thereafter, Jesus will not be around for them to follow.
• In the past, following Jesus, physically, marks their discipleship. But not anymore, after this last supper.
So Jesus said, “34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)
• The command to love each other is not really new in and of itself. It has been a teaching of the OT. Lev 19:18 says, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
• So what is new? It will become the MARK of discipleship.
• What is going to set them apart as disciples of Jesus, now in His absence? Their love for one another.
The Lord says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples…”
• How are we going to identify a disciple of Christ? This is the new mark.
• They are no longer following the physical Jesus. They are the ones who love one another the same way Christ loves them!
• This is the defining mark of discipleship – for them, as well as for us.
THE BEST EXPRESSION OF OUR DISCIPLESHIP IS OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER
I believe this moment left an indelible mark in John’s life. He was the only one among the four Gospel writers to pen down these words.
• And repeated it at length in his first epistle 1 John when he wrote it many years later. For the early church, 1 John becomes the earliest and most authoritative commentary on Jesus' new commandment.
• Nowhere else in the NT does the term “new commandment” appears, apart from this story, and 1 John and 2 John. Only John picked up on this term.
I believe John understood Jesus’ words when He pointed out Judas. His world came apart that moment.
• Someone he knew for years was the one who paid lip service to love.
• John was profoundly shaped by this moment at the Last Supper. He became the strong advocate of true love – for God and for one another.
See how John belabours this point in 1 John:
• 1 John 2:9-10 “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”
• 1 John 3:10 “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”
• 1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”
• 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
A true disciple of Jesus Christ is identified by love.
• Paul says in 1 Cor 13 that a Christian is not known for his spiritual gifts. 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
• He is not known for his knowledge, nor even his faith. 13:2 “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
• He is not known for his generosity or his great achievements. 13:3 “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
I don’t think I need to tell you the answer. By now, we should know.
• It is worthy to note that this is a commandment Jesus gave at His last supper with the disciples, and His ONLY command.
• It is important, it marks who we really are in Christ, and I believe, it is the way we can win the world back to Christ. It is the way the world will see Christ.
OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER IS FOUNDED UPON HIS LOVE FOR US
It has nothing to do with the person you love – whether he is nice to you, good looking or friendly.
• And it has nothing to do with you. You may be kind-hearted and merciful.
• It has to do with the love we receive. It has to do with His love! That’s our basis.
Jesus says in verse 34b: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” That becomes the basis of our love for one another.
• 1 John 4:10-11 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
• That’s the reason why we are able to love, John says, is because we’ve first tasted it from Him. John called himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. (cf. 13:23)
Focus is on His love for me!
• This perspective is very critical. We need to get this right.
• The basis of my love for you is His love for me.
John made an interesting remark in 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
• It does not say, if you love the world, the love FOR the Father is not in you. It is not saying, “If you love the world, you won’t love God.”
• John says if you love the world, the love OF the Father is not in you.
• We are unable to taste the fullness of His love because our heart is too cluttered, too preoccupied by this world.
The focus is not about your love FOR God – that’s shaky ground. It is not about you trying to love God and love people more. That’s your efforts.
• It is all about the love OF God. His love is in your heart, if you pay attention.
• So we love today because God loves us. We can love because He has already given it to us.
It is not imitation – “You need to copy Me. That’s how I love and that’s how you are going to love.”
• It is more of stewardship. “I’ve already give it to you, now go and share it.”
• It is the outflow of a transformed life in Christ. We are called to let His love flow from us, and not stifle it.
So the resolution is – revisit God’s love for you. A revival, a rekindling of His love for you, will cause you to love others.
Love is not passive. We usually think of love as something that happens to us.
• We say we fall in love, like falling into a ditch, quite unintentionally. Or I was swept off my feet by his charm, quite helplessly. It’s like love catches you up and you are the passive one. It is something that just happens to you.
• But this is not the way God puts it. Love is a choice. Love is something we can control.
• For God so loved the world that He gave. Love is not passive. It is not something that happens to you. It is something that you MAKE HAPPEN.
Can you love one another? Yes! How? Choose to. Decide to. Make it happen.
We love not by imitation. 2 Pet 1:4 says we are just “participating in His divine nature…” We are simply expressing this new life we have in Christ.
• The natural expression of this new life is the ability to love one another, just as Christ loves us.
• We love each other with the love of Jesus.
I want to close with this thought. This love is eternal.
• Love of family, parents and even your spouse will not continue in heaven. The Lord says there won’t be such relationships in heaven.
• But we’ll continue to love one another in heaven, as children of the living Lord, and that will be forever.
So, dear church, love one another. We are preparing ourselves for eternity.
• And we are most like Christ when we love one another.
[Videoclip: UnlikeChrist]
