A New Commandment, A New Way

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34 – 35.

 

Consider the context of what Jesus says, how do verses 34 and 35 work in the passage?

 

In verse 33 Jesus says, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”

 

Then in verse 36 we read, “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’”

 

It is as if Simon Peter ignores the New Commandment and wants to get on with what Jesus is saying about going away and coming again, about being seen and then not being seen, about the disciples not being able to follow and then being able to follow. (Recall the passages on this theme listed in the previous reflection that we find throughout the Upper Room).

 

We tend, I think, to view verses 34 and 35 in isolation from its context, an enigmatic context if we will follow the theme of Jesus appearing and leaving and appearing, of Jesus being seen and then not seen and then seen, of us not being able to follow and then following. (Do we not see this motif in the Song of Solomon, with the Bridegroom appearing and then withdrawing, and then appearing again? Do we not see the Bride searching for her Beloved?)

 

Is this not a dance of the Bridegroom and the Bride? Can we not “see” that when our Beloved withdraws Himself it is an invitation to follow Him into deeper intimacy?

 

The depths of this invitation to intimacy are seen yet again in John 15:12 – 13 where the New Commandment contains the “greater love” of laying down one’s life for our friends. For us to love as Jesus loves means that we lay down our lives for the brethren, it means that we know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).

 

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16).

 

The way to follow Jesus, the way to go where He is going, is to love one another as He loves us, and this is to be how all men are to know that we are His disciples.  (Note also John 17:23. Our love for one another and our unity in the Trinity are the marks by which we and the Gospel are to be known – they are our testimony!).

 

Living in the Holy of Holies of John 17 entails the ever-present and unfolding Way of Life of John 13:34 – 35 and John 15:12 – 13.

 

There are at least two great dangers in pondering the New Commandment, the first is to gloss over “even as I have loved you” and say, “That is impossible. We’ll just do the best we can.” The second great danger is to think that we can obey this command in and of ourselves.

 

We have no warrant to edit the Word of Jesus Christ, to dumb it down, to lower the standard, to make excuses – including the excuse, “Well, I’m just a sinner saved by the grace of God.”  God forbid that we should think that, in Christ, we are anything but saints – the sons and daughters of the Living God, born of the Holy Spirit and made new creations in Jesus Christ! (2 Cor. 5:11 – 21; Rom. Cp. 8; Jn. Cp. 17).

 

To love as Jesus loves means that the Cross, the laying down of our lives, is ever working within us and through us. It also means that we know the reality of abiding in the Vine and that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:1 – 5). Jesus Christ is our organic source of life – not a religious or moral or ethical system, no matter its Christian trappings, and certainly not a political or economic or nationalistic system – no matter the pressure exerted upon us.

 

The New Commandment brings us to the end of ourselves and to our new life in Jesus Christ. It brings us to the end of ourselves because we cannot obey it – we have not the life to do so. It brings us to our new life in Jesus Christ because in Him, in the Vine, we have resurrection life – the working out of the Cross and the Resurrection in the ebb and flow of life throughout our entire being and in koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.

 

The life of the Trinity lives in us, through our redemption in Christ, and this life finds expression in community, in koinonia – leading us together in Life in which God is all in all.

 

And yet we gloss over the New Commandment as if it were some sort of high and lofty unattainable ideal – when it is to be the bedrock of our life and witness in Jesus Christ. We make excuses when our Father will have no excuses.

 

Let us make no mistake, living in the New Commandment will cost us our lives – for it leads to the Cross and it is empowered by the Cross – the Cross working in us as individuals, in marriages, in families, in congregations, and (if we must have them) in our traditions and denominations.

 

Jesus is saying, “I’m going away, but here is how you can follow Me. Here is how I will reveal Myself again and again and again. I will go away and come again, then I will go away again and come again. You will see Me as you follow Me in my love, as you love as I love, as you die as I die, as you rise as I rise, as you give as I give, as you forgive as I forgive…as you live in Me and as I live in you.”

 

O the glory our Father has given to us in Jesus Christ! The joy of being His daughters and sons!

 

Galatians 2:20.