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THE NEW COMMANDMENT

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 10, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 6.

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THE NEW COMMANDMENT.

By Chas. B. Reynolds

There is no virtue which the contemplation of the sufferings and death of Jesus more strongly inculcates than charity—love. The Saviour implores us by that quickening spirit of love and consolation which he sheds through the hearts of his followers, by those blissful hopes of immortal joys he has purchased for us, by that infinite and unutterable love which his suffering life and agonizing death displayed for us, that “we love one another.”
In his notes on John 13:34, Albert Barnes, the great Presbyterian commentator, says:—
“A new commandment. This command he gave them as he was about to leave them, to be a badge of discipleship, by which they might be distinguished from all others. It is called new, not because it was not before commanded to love our fellow-men; for one great precept of the law was that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Lev. 19:18. But it was new because it had never before been made the thing by which any class or body of men had been known and distinguished. The Jew was known by his external rites, by his peculiarity of dress, &c.; the philosopher, by some other mark of distinction; the military man, by another, &c. In none of these cases had love for each other been the distinguishing and peculiar badge by which they were known.”
“But in the case of the Christians they were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly distinctions; but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other. This was to surmount all distinction of country, of color, of rank, of office, of sect. Here they were to feel that they were on a level, that they had common wants, were redeemed by the same sacred blood, and going to the same Heaven. They were to befriend each other in trials, be careful of each other's feelings and reputation, and deny themselves to promote each other's welfare. See 1 John 3:23; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Thess. 1:3; Gal. 6:2; 2 Peter 1:7.”
“In all these places the command of Jesus is repeated or referred to, and it shows that the first disciples considered this indeed as the peculiar law of Christ. This command or law was moreover new in regard to the extent to which this love was to be carried; for he immediately adds, ‘As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.’ His love for them was strong, continued, unremitting. And he was now about to show his love for them in his death. Chap. 15:13. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ So in 1 John 3:16, it is said that ‘we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren.’ This was a new, an unseen expression of love; and it showed the strength of attachment which we ought to have for Christians, and how ready we should be to endure hardships, to encounter dangers, and to practice self-denial, to benefit those for whom the Son of God laid down his life.”
God is love; his law is love; Christ is love. Love is the very life of the religion of Jesus. It is the animating spring of every other grace and virtue—the eternal center to which all other virtues and graces tend. Love constitutes the inseparable badge of the disciple of Christ. Unless we have the Spirit of Christ we are none of his. Animated by this divine principle of love, we shall uniformly endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Regarding one another as destined to be dwellers in the same city of eternal love; resting for pardon on the same precious blood; quickened by the same almighty Spirit; preparing for the glorious inheritance by the same course of suffering and trial; fellow pilgrims through the same vale of tears to a blissful and eternal rest; we should be united in the most sacred and endearing emotions of tenderness and kindness, by the most affectionate and powerful ties.
Oh! what an exalted exhibition of holy joy and peace would the world present, did this spirit of divine love pervade and animate every heart! This vale of tears and misery, where discord, suspicion, envy, and revenge, blast the few joys which lie scattered along the path of life, would be converted into a very paradise of love and peace. We can never attain Heaven until we attain this love.
We claim to have very solemn reverence and tender respect for the last wishes of our dear loved ones. Shall we fail to regard the dying admonition of our blessed Saviour? Shall we fail to obey his dying counsel, “Love one another”?
True love will induce us to desire the happiness of others and to promote their interests. It will cause us to ignore self, and to find our greatest delight and happiness in endeavoring to promote the delight and happiness of those around us.
May we perseveringly seek to attain to perfect obedience to the last wishes of our absent Lord, and may we manifest our love to God by our love to one another. Dear brethren and sisters, “let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.