¶ New Commandment
New Commandment is the word Jesus spoke after He washed their feet and before the night turned.
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.
This is My commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down his life for his friends.
The command is new because the measure is new.
The measure is a cross.
Leviticus already said, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That word is not canceled. Jesus called it the second great commandment, like the first. What is new is the pattern and the people. Just as I have loved you. They have watched a towel. By morning they will have a grave. I am writing you no new commandment, John will say later, but an old one—and then, again, a new commandment, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing. Old in substance. New in the light of the Son. The badge of discipleship is not a fish on a cart or a seat in a synagogue. It is love inside the company that wears His name—love the world can see. Love one another is not a ban on loving the enemy. It is the first proof that the towel and the blood reached the house. As I have loved you will always outrun as I love myself. Self is a short ruler. The laid-down life is the long one. Abide, and you can keep it. Apart from Him you can do nothing.
- New is the standard, not a repeal of neighbor-love.
- As I have loved you points at Thursday night and Friday.
- By this all people will know—is public evidence, not a private mood.
- Greater love is defined as laying down a life, not liking a feed.
- John calls it old and new because the same love now has a face.
- Disciples is the word. The command is family first, mission next, same love.
- The towel in chapter 13 is the commentary on the sentence.
¶ Key Aspects of the New Commandment
- Given That Night – After the basin; before the kiss.
- The Measure – Just as I have loved you.
- The People – One another; disciples in view.
- The Mark – All people will know.
- The Height – Lay down his life for his friends.
- Old and New – Neighbor-love kept; cross-love added as light.
- Abide – The only way the command lives.
- John 13:34-35 – “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 15:12-13, 17 – “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”… “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
- Leviticus 19:18 – You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
- Matthew 22:37-39 – You shall love the Lord your God… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
- 1 John 2:7-8 – I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning… At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
- 1 John 3:16, 23 – By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers… This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.
- 1 John 4:10-11 – In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- John 13:14-15 – If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example.
- John 15:9-10 – Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.
- Ephesians 5:2 – Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
- Romans 13:8 – Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you.
By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
I have given you an example. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
It is an old commandment—and a new commandment, true in Him and in you.
Do not shrink the new command to niceness. The ruler is the cross. Wash. Stay. Lay down what pride wants to keep. Let the world read the Name on how you treat the ones at the table. As He loved you—that is the whole law of the house.
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