A New Commandment by D. T. Bourdeau

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 20, 1871

A New Commandment.

By D. T. Bourdeau

“A NEW commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34.

This commandment is sometimes called a new commandment and “the eleventh commandment,” in the sense that it was not known before Christ. But this is a grand mistake. For instance, in Lev. 19:18, we find, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The very principle of loving our neighbor grows out of immutable relations that man has ever sustained to his fellow-creatures. Again, John calls this commandment “an old commandment,” and “not a new commandment.” 1 John 2:7; 2 John 5. We readily see how this is an old commandment; but in what sense was it new in the days of Christ? We answer, in the same sense that the Sabbath truth is now new to the masses. It was new because it had been lost sight of, as it is at the present time, when in fulfillment of prophecy, men are “lovers of their own selves,” and as a consequence, the love that they owe to God and to man is waxing cold. 2 Tim. 3:2; Matt. 24:12. At no time in this world's history could the precept, “Love one another,” be more properly called new than at the present time. This precept appeared new in the days of Christ as luster shone upon it from his teachings, and especially from his example in loving our fallen race; and may we daily discover new beauties in this precept from these two prolific sources of inestimable knowledge.

D. T. BOURDEAU.