Hours before the cross, Jesus issues His “new commandment”: love one another — new because the standard is no longer “as yourself” but “as I have loved you”: self-giving, feet-washing, life-laying-down love. He makes this love the badge by which all men recognize His disciples.
John 13:34 KJV“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
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Jesus gives a new commandment with an extraordinary standard: love one another as I have loved you. Not as you feel inclined, not as they deserve, not as the world loves — as He loved, which means sacrificially, consistently, even when it costs everything. Think about the people in your church or community. Are you loving them with that kind of active, costly, Christ-like love? Or is your love for them mostly peaceful because it hasn't yet been tested?
There is someone right now — in your church, your community, your life — who is hard to love. You know who it is. Love that person today as Jesus loved you: serve them, speak well of them, meet a need they have, forgive the offense you're holding. Do it whether they deserve it or not, whether they notice or not, whether it costs you or not. This is the command.
When you love one another as He loved you, you reveal the Father's own nature. God is love, and when you love sacrificially, the world sees what He is like. This love is not a strategy for witness — it is the overflow of being loved by the Father through the Son, and it marks you unmistakably as His.
love | friendship | the gospel
This is one of 69 direct commands of Jesus in the free Red Letter Challenge: All Commands of Jesus — The Living Sword
Read every Scripture in your chosen translation (WEB, KJV, Geneva, YLT, and more) at https://www.thelivingsword.org/red-letter-challenge/love-one-another