The Royal Inclusio – Love (1)

 

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you...This I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:12, 17).

 

We’re going to ponder John 15:12 – 17, keeping in mind that this is a continuation of what precedes it and that it leads into what follows it – for this is all in the Upper Room.

 

Note that the passage begins and ends with Jesus’ command to us to love one another. This is what is termed an inclusio. Here is a basic definition from the Internet:

 

“Inclusio is a literary device in the Bible that involves repeating similar phrases, words, or themes at the beginning and end of a section or work. It's also known as bracketing or an envelope structure.”

 

Inclusio is employed for various reasons, and I’ll leave it to you to explore the reasons. I think of them as literary and oratorical devices used as punctuation and as guideposts for the reader and the hearer. I use the term “oratorical” because the Bible was written for the ear as much as the eye, as was much literature throughout history. This was for two reasons; people read aloud to themselves, and people read aloud to others.

 

Good literature is like good music, it has patterns and structure that help us “see” and remember what we read – good literature is a house that we can live in. This is one reason why reading the Bible to ourselves aloud helps us visualize and understand what we’re reading, it helps us see the house and how its furniture is arranged.

 

(This should also underline the importance of the public reading of Scripture in our gatherings – and of reading it well. If we are going to read Scripture we ought to know what we’re reading, to practice it just as a musician practices music before playing publicly. Ought we not to respect God, His Word, and His People? If we know people are coming to dinner, do we wait until they arrive to decide what to set before them? We ought to “give attention” to the public reading of Scripture, 1 Timothy 4:13.)

 

Jesus uses inclusio in John 15:12 – 17 to emphasize and mark off His new commandment, first given in John 13:34 – 35, that we are to love one another just as He loves us. Within our inclusio He deepens the texture of the commandment, drawing us deeper into koinonia with Himself and with one another, and raising us up into the Trinity.

 

The entire Upper Room narrative is found within an inclusio of love: “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (13:1); “so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (17:26).

 

What do you see in John 15:12 – 17?

 

What are the elements of this passage?

 

How is this passage connected to John 15:1 – 11?

 

What do we see about Jesus?

 

What do we see about us as individuals and as a people?

 

Is this the Way we are living?