A New Commandment

John 13:31-35

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

It is easy with this passage to jump to vs. 34 and 35, about loving one another. But if we do that too quickly we miss the introduction of two themes that will appear again and again in the chapters we will be reading from John.

The first is that God will be glorified in what Jesus, the Son of Man, does, and God will share that glory with Jesus, the Son of Man. The glory of Jesus Christ and that glory being revealed to the world is a theme that began back at the very start of John (John 1:14) and continues through the cross. Here Jesus is saying that the moment of his glorification is at hand.

The second theme is that Jesus is going away (vs. 33) and in fact much of the rest of the reading in John unpack what it means for Jesus to go away.

But turning to the famous verses – 34 and 35 – “love one another as I have loved you.” This is not romantic love; rather this is love for a fellow believer in Jesus Christ, love for the neighbour, love for “the widow, the orphan, and the stranger” as the Old Testament so often says, love for one’s enemies and those who insult us as Jesus instructs in the Sermon on the Mount. This kind of love is not the usual love seen in the world, because Jesus says that those who live this love will be known as the disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ. Those who love this way will be seen as different than the rest of the world.

Loving this way is only possible when we are willing to let the Holy Spirit shape our lives so that we show love not only to the people we like, but also for the people we disagree with and the people we don’t like.   

PRAYER:

We rejoice, O Lord, that you have been glorified in Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, glorify yourself in us as we live out Jesus’ call to love one another in the same way that Jesus loves. In his name we pray. Amen.