After telling his disciples, with great tenderness, that he was leaving and that, where he was going, they could not come, Jesus then gave them (and us) this commandment. Jesus knew that his presence was what had held them together and he knew as well the great trial they were about to face. So, he points them here toward each other as a kind of solace for his absence, and a kind of substitute for his binding presence. To love each other whom they could see, would in some sense be how they would continue to love Jesus, whom they could no longer see.

This was not a “new commandment” in the sense that the disciples had never heard of anything like it. In fact, “to love your neighbor as yourself” was commonplace Rabbinical teaching. However, Jesus changed this commandment by identifying a new object for that love, a higher measure of that love, and a new power behind that love.

Jesus called them to a committed love for all who would follow him, even above genetic ties. The bond we share in Christ should supersede all ethnic diversities, all denominational differences, and all political affiliations. Our love for him should cause us to bridge the gaps that lay between us! And God intends for these relationships to cause us to grow. He puts us in relationships that, by design, leave us nowhere to run when things get difficult: marriage, parent/child, and with other church members. And he does this, in part, to teach us to love and to grow in humility and dependence upon him by essentially being forced to do so! And, as with marriage and children, those seasons in which loving certain people in the church is more difficult, make our long-term ties together and relationships richer and deeper and more powerful (both with God and with the other person or people we learn to love and receive love from).

By his own example, Jesus also called us to a higher measure of love. In our culture, love has become largely a feeling; reduced to emotion and half-hearted sentiment. This is not Jesus’ definition. To love is to act. It is to be selfless and to choose the good of others above your own. It is to give when there is a need and to forgive as many times as it’s called for. It is to serve and to be gentle, compassionate and kind. It is to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things(1 Corinthians 13). Didn’t we see Jesus do all this and more for the people around him? And ultimately, of course, he died that we might be saved! That is the standard he has laid before us.

And lastly, Jesus gave us a new power for loving others. We can only love like this because he has poured his love into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit! Our love for Jesus leads us to the place where we say, “Yes Lord! Make me a person who loves like you do!” And then, thanking him for what he’s done, we trust that as we step forward into this calling, his love in our hearts will overflow to the brothers and sisters in our church.