"Little children, I am with you only a little longer. . . .‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”" (John 13:33-35, NRSV)
The new commandment? Loving one another doesn’t seem like a new commandment. Wasn’t loving your neighbor as yourself essential to the Law for Israel? Love isn’t new, but the motive behind love is new. We don’t love each other to benefit each other. We don’t love our neighbor because it does them good for us to love them. We don’t love each other because it makes us feel better about ourselves or somehow is a good work for us. Rather we love each other because Jesus loves us. Loving each other is a response to the Love that Jesus gives us. Loving each other is a way of glorify our Lord.
So what is the type of love that Jesus shares with us. Just prior to this “new” commandment Jesus realizing that the Father has given everything into his hands (wow! Everything is in the hands of the Son—that is trust!) turns to his disciples and washes their feet. He serves them. The love that Jesus shares with us is one of a servant—one that goes above and beyond to care for each other. We in turn must serve each other and the world.
The new commandment of love is really a new motive to respond to Jesus’ love—which is ultimate expressed on the cross. Now that is going above and beyond to serve—dying on the cross.
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