Tuesday, July 8, 2025
I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35 CSB
Love Like This
Jesus gave His disciples a special commandment, a new commandment, as He celebrated His final Passover meal with them. This new commandment was 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. (John 13:34). This command gave the disciples a new standard to measure themselves by - the way they loved others.
Jesus and the disciples were a close-knit fellowship of believers. He led them and taught them, and they followed him. They shared fears, tragedies, struggles; they shared life together during their time together. They laughed and cried together. They supported one another and held each other accountable. He loved them unconditionally and with reckless abandon. During their time together Jesus modeled everything they needed to know with his life. The way he loved them was the foundation for all believers on how they should love each other.
Jesus loved His disciples sacrificially, meeting their deepest needs in a way no one else could, by giving them forgiveness of sins and new life. He loved everyone that way, even His enemies. He commanded His disciples, and us, to love each other the way He had shown love to them. That means those who we think don’t deserve it, those who are difficult to love, and those who are different than us. He loves us unconditionally, expecting nothing in return, and He expects us to love others that way as well. He gives us a choice we don’t deserve. We have the option of death as the wages of sin, (For the wages of sin is death… Romans 6:23a), or death to our self (sin) and eternal life in Him. (...but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23b) We only deserve death, but He loved us enough to gift us eternal life, if we choose to accept it. That is the unconditional love that He loved us with so we would follow His example and love others the way He loved us.
Jesus didn’t just share a meal with them that night, He washed their feet, a beautiful display of humility and servant leadership. Peter was uncomfortable with Jesus washing his dirty feet, but Jesus told Peter that unless he let Jesus wash his feet, he couldn’t be a part of His work. Jesus was setting an example for them. He instructed them to wash each other’s feet just as He has washed their feet. He served those who serve Him. This is the lesson of the least shall be the greatest and the greatest shall be the least. And Jesus wasn’t just setting an example; He was telling them to be humble and serve one another in love and fellowship. This is how He expected them to treat each other after He left.
Right up to the end of His life Jesus was setting the example of how we are supposed to live our lives and treat others, in fellowship with one another. He knew that the world would always be watching and how we love each other is what distinguishes us as belonging to him. How we treat others will be more important than any other accomplishment we will ever achieve.
Can your friends, co-workers, neighbors and family tell you belong to Jesus by how you treat them and others?
What about the waitress who gets your order wrong?
What about the store clerk who gives you the wrong change?
How about the co-worker who betrayed your trust?
We are sinners and in our sin we betray him. Yet he comes to us again and again, after every failure, with unconditional love, mercy and grace. His mandate for us as his disciples is clear - love like him. The world is watching and they are hoping they see something that will give them hope.
