We attended Maundy Thursday services prior to Easter Sunday. Not sure how many churches still observe this, but it is a good service. Our pastor spoke on the love of Christ, a fitting exposition for the occasion. The Thursday before His resurrection, Christ sat in the upper room, breaking bread with His disciples, instituting the sacrament of the last supper, washing the feet of the men He had led for the past three years. At the end of the night, He would go, willingly, to the cross. This is what He meant when He said:
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
I think about how hard this must have been for those men. I recently took a part time job to help make ends meet since I lost my job last September. I have only been in this new place for a little more than 90 days. I had to let them know I was leaving in the summer for a new position up north. One of the girls I work with got really upset. The woman who trained me had to work to control her reaction. She and I have become pals. Honestly, I am really going to miss these people. In the short period of 90 days I have really come to love and care for many of them. I say many because I have not really had the time to get to know all of them well, but how quickly we do make friends.
I was thinking about this as our Pastor expounded the concept of John 15:13 and Jesus’ final earthly discourse with the disciples. In Mathew 22:37-40, responding to the Pharisees, Jesus says this:
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
There’s nothing new to this commandment, the final stanza, “on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets,” show us that Jesus is pointing to the Old Testament. The Law, or 10 Commandments, show us how to love God, first four, and how to love our neighbor, next six. It’s also an almost direct quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus’ comment here is not, as some in the church today teach, superseding anything that has not already been taught. He is reminding the Pharisees, and the disciples who must have been within hearing distance, that they have lost sight of God’s truth. (A quick note that this is what being “reformed” means, always reforming back to the truth of God’s Word).
Let’s jump forward to the text from last evening. John 13:31-35. Many study bibles, or sequenced bibles, entitle this passage, “The New Commandment.”
31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. 33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:31-35
The question is, what is new about the new commandment? Remember the note about being reformed? I would submit to you that this passage is often used today to support the concept “love is love,” which I could probably write volumes on, but if we look back into the Old Testament, and even to Jesus’ prior comments on the same, we see that the concept of loving God, and loving your neighbor are consistent in scripture. The key difference here is this: “love one another as I have loved you.”
I talk a lot about languages and translations when I am called to expound God’s word. Often I think the extremely vanilla yet complex nature of the English language does us a disservice, which is why knowing the root languages of scripture is so important. Sometimes, however, another language translation can help. The German word used here for “love one another” is “untereinander,” it roughly translates to love among themselves. You could break this word down to “under one another.” “Unter” meaning under, “Ein” meaning one, and the word “Anderer,” meaning another. What Jesus is saying is that our love for each other lifts us up, supports us, girds us up if you will. We should be prepared to lay our lives down for each other as we fight the good fight. That we love each other as brethren, in the same way that He loved us, laying His life down that we may have life ourselves. This is the new element, and yet perhaps not so new, but needing to be pointed out.
17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:17-18
Look at the context of the passage here and how it relates to a “brother?” How about to the “children of your people?” And then the statement, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Hebrew word here for neighbor, “rea, or reya” means friend, companion, fellow citizen. The emphasis is that we are to love our brethren in a way that stands out, or is set apart, from the world. Something unique, almost otherworldly, love in a selfless way, a love that is in opposition to the world. This is the element of the qualifier that Jesus closes the passage with: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our love for each other should stand out, glorifying Him who saved us, so that all will see and know that we are His. If you study the early days of the church, it was this behavior that marked the first Christians so well. It was why so many turned to profess the Lord God Almighty, His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I am not saying we shouldn’t love our neighbors outside of the faith. We should definitely show the love of God to the world. Again, Christ’s final position here is to let our love for one another bear witness. But there is a key distinction here in the love of one another versus showing His love to the world. The modern church at large has twisted this into love everyone in everything. Imagine if Christ had this attitude towards the Pharisees? When He shows His love to the woman at the well, He points out her iniquities very clearly. Was that loving? Or at least loving in the modern sense of the term? The adulteress in the gospel of John, after Jesus had shown her mercy, He says, “Go, and sin no more.” Loving? When we look at the teaching here we need to be very understanding that God hates sin. Not my words, His:
5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Psalms 5:5-6
5 The LORD tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals;
Fire and brimstone and a burning wind
Shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous,
He loves righteousness;
His countenance beholds the upright. Psalms 11:5-7
When we approach those outside of the faith, our love should be pointing them towards the gospel of Christ Jesus, not affirming their sinful selves. There’s a passage in the first epistle of John that exemplifies this principle:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17
When we do not share the love of God in a way that says repent, are we really loving someone? I was witnessing to a good friend years ago. He was having a hard time in life and had developed some destructive habits. I asked him if I stumbled in on him with a gun in his mouth would he expect me to sit back and allow him to pull the trigger. Extreme example I know. He said no. I responded he was pointing the gun of eternity at himself and that I loved him enough to do my best to keep him from that. I realize God is the one who works, but He has asked me to show that kind of love. I think we have confused love with tolerance today.
I have shared similar witness with some of my new colleagues at work. The funny thing is, they keep coming back with more questions. I ask the members of my youth group if their parents stop loving them when they are disciplined, or have to be taught something through a hard moment? The answer is a universal no. What Jesus is teaching us here in John 13:31-35 is that our love to the world should be longsuffering, but that it also will be something that is difficult, something that will often take the shape of tough love. Jesus loved us enough to die for us. He also loved us enough to put us through trials and temptation, that cannot be an easy thing. Think about this, He knew Peter would deny Him three times, He knew how it would make Peter feel. And Jesus allowed it to happen anyway. That tough love created perseverance, which led to character, and truth.
May God Bless this Writing.
Aaron's Rod 
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