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A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)Love as Jesus love them
This message has been given to His disciples as He is about to be crucified. This is a momentous event for He told them to love as Jesus has loved them. Then He went and demonstrated this love at the cross.Maybe at that time, they did not understood what Jesus meant. In His question to Peter in v. 37 "Will you really lay down your life for me?" Jesus clearly knew that Peter does not understood what it meant to "lay your life for someone", and even predicted that he will betray him. So when they have witnessed this ultimate display of love by Jesus at the cross, the disciples fully understood what Jesus meant when He said "to love as He loved', as John described it in 1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."
The New Commandment
To understand this statement of John even further, we need to answer this question first: "Why did the Lord called it a new commandment?"This commandment has been given before to the Israelites in Leviticus 19:18 "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus made this commandment new by setting Himself as the standard of loving.
With this, we can say that it is impossible for us to understand love without understanding that it is from Jesus. It all starts with Him, and how God demonstrated this love. (Romans 5:8)
By this, not just some but everyone will know that we are following Him and His example if we are loving one another as Jesus has loved us. We all know the kind of life and death these disciples had as they spread the gospel of Jesus Christ because of that same love they have received.
Photo by: Zee Gabales
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