A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Why does Jesus consider this a “new” command?
Matthew records Jesus teaching about the two greatest commandments. He says:
”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22: 37b-40)
The first commandment encompasses the first four of the Ten Commandments. The second commandment encompasses the other six. This second commandment is explained in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10: 25-37) in the story of the Good Samaritan. The gist of the story is that everyone is your neighbor regardless of race or nationality. We are commanded to love all people.
Now Jesus adds a third command: Love one another.
Who is he talking to? His disciples. Who is the ‘one another?’ Other believers. How are we to love them? As Jesus loved his disciples.
This command is new because it is specific to those who profess to be followers of Jesus.
Let’s Discuss: Why do you suppose Jesus felt it necessary to add this third commandment about loving?
Because, as He said in Matthew 22, it fulfills the entirety of the law and the prophets. If we love God and others well, as God would love another, then we are doing all that the law requires. The church father Jerome wrote of the Apostle John is his old age. He was mumbling over and over again, “love one another.” When asked why that was all he said, he replied, “Because it is the Lord’s command, and if it alone is done, it is sufficient.”
Brother Rich,
Thanks for sharing Jerome’s story about John. Godly love is in a category by itself. To care for each other as Jesus loves us is indeed both a worthy ideal and fulfillment of the God’s law.