If we lived by this one, we would fulfill the Ten Commandments. This post covers John 13:31-35. The Ten Commandments are given for guidance, to clarify how we can know we are living by this new commandment.
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In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
I.. Scripture: John 13:31-35
A. Verse 34 is the new commandment
31 Then, when Judas left, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify him in himself and will immediately glorify him. 33 Children, I am with you a brief time. You will seek me and just as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot not come,’ I also tell you now.
34 “I give you a new commandment: that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.” (John 13:31-35)
B. Comments:
1.. Verses 31-32:
Recall this verse: “Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice from heaven came: “I have glorified it and I will glorify it again” (John 12:28). As I wrote under 12:28, so how did the Father already glorify it and then will glorify it again? In the first instance, his name was glorified in the ministry and signs of the Incarnate Word, if people could see below the surface and the Father’s backing of his Son. Glorifying it again means the completion of the mission of his Son when he died on the cross and was buried, resurrected, and ascended. The ascension is the vindication of the Son and completion of the mission of both the Father and the Son. Mission accomplished, at the ascension.
Bruce: “The words ‘God will glorify him in himself’ appear to have much the same meaning as Jesus’s petition, ‘And now, Father, glorify me with thyself ….’ in John 17:5. This presupposes that ‘in himself’ here means ‘in God the Father himself’; as the Father is glorified in the Son, so the Son is to be glorified in the Father” (comments on vv. 31-32). The Father would get glory by glorifying Jesus’s humanity and welcoming him to fellowship with himself. “immediately” means things are set in motion; even today, he will die.
“It is one of the greatest theological insights of John’s gospel that the glory of God is seen most clearly in the cross. God is love, and his glory is what most vividly displays this love. Thus the cross, the ultimate expression of God’s love, is the focus of God’s glory” (Mounce, comments on v. 31).
2. Verse 33:
In John 8:21 Jesus told the Jews (the religious establishment of Jerusalem) that they will seek him but will die in their sins, and where he is going they cannot come. They blundered and thought he was going to commit suicide. He replied that he is from above, while they are from below (8:23). The disciples in the Upper Room are not going to die in their sins, but they cannot go to him because he is from above, and the way there—to his Father—is to die. Where they cannot come for now is the cross. They are not called to die with him during his arrest or anytime soon. They will be scattered after the shepherd is struck (Zech. 13:7). Then years later they will die and go to him, like James the son of Zebedee did (Acts 12:2). Jesus had predicted that the brothers would suffer and possibly die (Mark 10:35, 39). John did much later and suffered persecution, like being exiled on the Island of Patmos.
Verse 33 is similar to these:
31 Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, “Consider! We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written in the prophets about the Son of man shall be fulfilled. 32 He shall be handed over to the Gentiles and be mocked and arrogantly mistreated and spit on. 33 And after they flog him, they shall kill him, and on the third day he shall rise again.” 34 But they understood none of this, and this spoken message was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what was spoken. (Luke 18:31-34)
Here in John’s Gospel, particularly v. 36, the disciples were mystified.
“children”: this is the only verse in the Gospel where this sweet term is used. Jesus is the head of this household, though it is used five times in his first epistle (1 John 3:1, 2, 10 [twice] 5:2) and three times in his second epistle (2 John 1, 4, 13) and once in his third epistle (3 John 4). Paul uses it in Gal 4:19 in a tender appeal to the Galatian converts. Likewise, Jesus is appealing to his spiritual children and bringing them into close fellowship with himself and his Father.
3.. Verses 34-35:
Jesus is about to depart from them, but he is leaving them gifts: his joy (15:11) and his peace (14:17). His new command enjoys the foundational example of the foot-washing (Klink, comment on v. 34). Carson thinks that it s possible that this is an indirect allusion to the New Covenant, spelled out in the Synoptics (e.g. Luke 22:20 and see 1 Cor. 11:25).
He commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves: Here is a passage from Mark’s Gospel:
“And ‘You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind, and with all your strength.’ [Deut. 6:4-5] 31 The second most important is this one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev. 19:18] There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
Bruce points out an excerpt from Tertullian (160/70 to 215/20), writing about a century after this Gospel, that the pagans of his day said of the Christians, “See how they love one another! How ready they are to die for one another!”
No one has greater love than this: that someone would lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16, NIV)
Since this is a new commandment to love—not an optional suggestion—let’s look more closely at this verb love. It is the verb agapaō (pronounced ah-gah-pah-oh). BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love”; (2) “to have high esteem for or satisfaction with something, take pleasure in; (3) “to practice / express love, prove one’s love.” In most instances this kind love in Scripture is not gooey feelings, though it can be a heart-felt virtue and emotion, as we see in the first definition. Rather, mostly love is expressed by action. If you have no gooey feelings for your enemy, do something practical for him.
Both the noun agapē (pronounced ah-gah-pay) and the verb mean a total commitment. For example, God is totally committed to his church and to the salvation of humankind. Surprisingly, however, total commitment can be seen in an unusual verse. Men loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19), which just means they are totally committed to the dark path of life. Are we willing to be totally committed to God and to live in his light? Can we match an unbeliever’s commitment to bad things with our commitment to good things?
Agapē and agapaō are demonstrative. This love is not static or still. It moves and acts. We receive it, and then we show it with kind acts and good deeds. It is not an abstraction or a concept. It is real.
It is transferrable. God can pour and lavish it on us. And now we can transfer it to our fellow believers and people caught in the world.
II. Application
A. Love fulfils the law.
Paul wrote, quoting some of the Ten Commandments:
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” [Exodus 20:13-15,17; Deut. 5:17-19,21] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [Lev. 19:18] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom. 13:8-10, NIV)
We can expand Jesus’s new commandment to loving your neighbor, not just members of the kingdom community.
B. Love God first
Jesus said in reply to a Pharisee questioning him:
36 “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the law?” 37 And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ [Deut. 6:5] 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second is like it. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev. 19:18] 40 On these two commandments the whole law and prophets depend.” (Matt. 22:36-40)
When we love hism first, the love for neighbor becomes fuller and easier, because he fills our hearts with love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16)
C. Question answered
So why is this a new commandment, when it has OT precedence?
Carson:
At the risk of confounding logic, it is not so much that Christians are to love the world less, as that they are to love one another more. Better put, their love for each other ought to be a reflection of their new status and experience as the children of God, reflecting the mutual love of the Father and the Son and imitating the love that has been shown them; their love for the world is the love of compassion, forbearance, evangelism, empathy—since all true Christians recognize they can never be more than mere beggars telling others where there is bread. The New Testament as a whole concentrates sometimes on the this focus of love, sometimes on that; it refuses to measure one against the other (comments on vv. 34-35).
I really like Carson’s comments here: “Orthodoxy without principal obedience to this characteristic command of the new covenant is merely so much humbug (comment on vv. 34-35).
D. Questions to ponder:
1.. How is your love for your church family?
2. How can you demonstrate God’s love in practical ways?
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 