These things I command you, that ye love one another.
These things He commands is a plain, decided charge to love one another with the same unselfish, steadfast love by which He loved, loving others because they belong to Him who bought them and not because of praise or affection returned. Its measure is laying down life for friends, shown when He left His crown to take helpless humanity upon Himself and die even for His enemies. Those He chose are to keep this word as His friends, abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and so go and bring forth fruit that remains. As branches of the one true Vine they draw near to each other as they draw near to Him, and their oneness made perfect as He and the Father are one proves their discipleship and convinces the world that the Father sent Him. This love is to be lived in the home, the marriage, and the church in compassionate words and deeds, forbidding suspicion, criticism and discord, restoring the erring and laboring for souls, even while the world that hated Him hates and persecutes them for His name's sake.
Setting and Context
These things were commanded in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when Christ was alone with the eleven before His approaching separation from them. A cruel death was just before Him, yet His words were full of hope and intended to comfort His followers, and this chapter is precious to every believing heart. They belong to His final instruction, counsel and comfort to the disciples before His departure and before His death, words they repeated in later trials and understood fully after the resurrection. They were given to prepare them for their future work, for that work would fail unless human effort was joined with divine power. These lessons were meant to remind them of His love and to strengthen them to face coming trials and temptations, keeping that love in mind in their work and councils. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission, the glorifying of the Father's name through all His humiliation and suffering, which He kept ever before Him and which was His joy.
The command belongs to His teaching on the relation of the branch to the vine, that believers are branches of the true Vine to live in connection with Christ. It is part of the chapters in which God's will is plainly outlined, to be believed and lived out, including in the conduct of ministers toward one another. Those who claim to believe on Jesus Christ should understand the teachings of John 15 and reveal them in the daily life. This is part of God's will plainly outlined in John 13-17, to be believed exactly as spoken, watched unto in prayer, stood for faithfully, and lived out before fellow ministers. It shows that Christ commands those who minister in word and doctrine to love one another by laboring together with God in perfect unity and love, each doing his own given work while bearing fruit to the glory of God. The love commanded means revealing Christlike love through patience and forbearance, controlling thoughts and words, daily emptying the heart of self and selfishness, and living as distinct branches of the true Vine drawing sustenance from one Source, Christ Jesus.
The surrounding words prepare followers for persecution so they will not become discouraged or doubt when it comes. They belong to Jesus' plain talk with His disciples in John 15 and 16 about the difficulties, hatred, conflicts, and manifold afflictions they would meet in the world. He knew every phase of experience and conflict they would face and prepared them for a dark, troubled future and great temptation to lose faith and be discouraged, mingling dark warnings with the bright, hopeful part of the future so they would not fail nor be offended. John 14 through 17 are of highest value for every soul consecrating life to God's service. The command was spoken by Christ knowing the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and it belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14-16 that imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. The command to love one another is given with the warning that the world will lay stumbling blocks in the way, and nothing else is to be expected from the world.
Together with John 6 and John 13-14 and John 16-17, these words show God's plain will for His people and hold part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world contained in John's gospel. The command belongs to Christ's present work of making believers one with Him in this life to be one with Him through all eternity, putting the Saviour's own life in them, hid with Christ in God, so that even if they die as Christ died they have eternal life, will be raised up at the last day, and have life more abundantly. Christ's instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer when the mind is reshaped by the influence of God's Spirit.
Meaning of the Command
These things are a decided, positive command from the One who gave His life to save souls, plainly spoken so as to leave no room for misunderstanding. It is to be obeyed as doers and not hearers only, carefully studied and earnestly practiced by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in daily life at home, in the family, and in the church. Its teaching is needed in every home and is a condition of receiving grace and of belonging among His people when He comes in glory. Disregard of it brings guilt before God, dishonors Him, and gives the world reason to doubt Christianity, calling for repentance and for redeeming the time by seeking in heart and life the spirit of His prayer for oneness, while keeping it bears to the world the divine credentials that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The love commanded is measured by Christ's own love that lays down life for friends, and it is higher than loving a neighbor as oneself. Christ's death on the cross revealed its meaning and measure, and the disciples understood its significance through that demonstration. It is high, unselfish, steadfast love that does not depend on human praise, affection, or appreciation, but loves others because they belong to Christ who purchased them.
Its measure was shown in laying down His life for His friends, for there is no greater love than this. He laid aside His crown to come to earth so that humanity could touch humanity, took the case of helpless humanity, identified Himself with humanity, and gave His life that people might have eternal life. He died to save even His enemies and prayed for His murderers. When that love is visible in the lives of His followers it influences others to recognize that they have been with Jesus and learned from Him, and it marks them as belonging to Christ.
The charge to love as He loved was new to the disciples because they had not so loved one another, and it gained a new meaning in the light of His self-sacrifice. Through His life and death they were given a new conception of love requiring new ideas, impulses, and principles. The whole work of grace is one continual service of self-denying, self-sacrificing love, flowing as the love of God flowed from Christ every hour of His life on earth, so that all imbued with His Spirit love as He loved and are actuated by His principle in all dealings with one another. The command is not bondage to the law, for His words are spirit and life to be believed and taken at His word, walking out by faith, serving God with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, with the privilege of claiming to be children of God.
This love is shown by following His example of compassionate, self-sacrificing care, rescuing, healing, protecting, and redeeming helpless humanity at His own cost. It is expressed in obedient friendship with Him and in Christian character shown in helpful words and actions, and by sacrificing even life so that others may be blessed, helped, and strengthened to grow in Christ. It calls for tender sympathy and practical care for the poor, oppressed, needy, and strangers, rather than passing by people in need while pursuing apparently great work, as exemplified by the Samaritan's care for a wounded man from a hostile group. Such willingness to sacrifice for another's good is a test of discipleship, showing that Christ abides in the heart and that a life is distinct from the world.
Obedience Fruit and Friendship
Loving one another belongs with obeying as friends who do whatever is commanded, keeping the commandments and abiding in love just as the Son kept the Father's commandments and abode in His love. Love for Christ is shown by keeping His commands, and keeping the commandments, including this command to love one another, is the evidence of love for God. Obedience to God's commandments is the Bible test for those who have received light, and this love is to continue even when the world hates and persecutes, as part of bearing lasting fruit and witnessing to Him. The command is the sum of obedience to His word, measured by His own love in giving His life for the ransom of the world, since there is no greater love than laying down life for friends, and this obedience brings full joy and glorifies Him.
Those commanded are those He chose and ordained, not they Him, to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with the promise that whatever they ask the Father in His name will be given. This calling belongs with distinctness from the world and separation from it, because being chosen out of the world brings the world's hatred as Christ was hated before them, while they are to live in love toward one another. Love for one another is the command given to His chosen, commissioned friends whose work is to bear lasting fruit. It is the ordained life and work of those in Christ and united to Him, uprooting selfishness and unfaithfulness, ending strife and divisions and stubborn independence, binding heart to heart in fellowship and in oneness with Christ and the Father, and bearing to the world an unanswerable testimony of the power of Christianity.
As friends and not servants He made known to them all that He heard of the Father, having chosen and ordained them to bring forth remaining fruit so that the Father answers prayer in His name. Keeping this mutual love fills hearts to overflowing with His joy remaining and made full and with the happiness of God's love. It strengthens those newly turned from darkness to light and from error to truth who believe with the heart and confess with the mouth unto salvation. It brings joy to the heart of Christ and to heavenly intelligences as they see it.
Obedience brings glorious results, for the command demands doers and not hearers only, and when believers are one with Christ they will be one with each other, united as Christ is in the Father. Those united to Christ share His life, and His love received through Him and made active by the Holy Spirit enables them to love one another sincerely with a true, enduring love and not merely familiar regard or passing emotion. Through the Holy Spirit this unity is attainable, binding hearts together by sanctifying grace, increasing affection for fellow believers, and reflecting His holy character in meekness and gentleness. Living this command depends on sharing in the divine life through faith in Christ and keeping His sacrifice in view, and by this love all know they are His disciples, a mark and united witness to the world.
The truths of the chapter assure that faith in His word is shown by taking it into practical life and obeying it, and those who obey the word have eternal life. This command belongs with God's plain will together with John 6 and John 13-14 and John 16-17, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, and belongs to His present work of making believers one with Him in this life to be one with Him through all eternity. Putting His own life in them, hid with Christ in God, even if they die as He died they have eternal life, will be raised up at the last day, and have life more abundantly. Those who walk in faith, obey God's will, and yield their lives to His control are assured of salvation and will remain forever in God's city, and united hearty labor with Christ for victory at every step carries the promise that He is on the side of those who work to the best of their ability to overcome temptation so they are never alone. The verse holds out the privilege of taking hold of the divine nature and becoming partakers of it, having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, making it possible for humanity to grasp divinity so divinity can lift up humanity into unity with Jesus Christ and with God, unto entering through the gates into the city where there is no more death and no more sin and no more temptation, seeing the King in His beauty, and having right to the tree of life.
Keeping this new commandment is a step heavenward, and obedience to it is what will give God's people the supremacy. All who love God supremely will love their neighbor as themselves, while living in transgression of the first four and the last six commandments leaves the Lord able to do very little for them.
Opposition From the World
The command to love one another stands amid the warning that those who follow Christ are not of the world but chosen out of it to live distinct from it and to bear lasting fruit. Because He chose them out of the world, the world hates them as it hated Him first, and their mutual love marks their life as His disciples. That love means standing together as one body, and in that unity there is strength through loyalty to God and to His truth.
The servant is not greater than his Lord, so as men persecuted Christ they will persecute His followers, and as men kept His saying they will keep theirs. All this is done to them for His name's sake because the world does not know the Father who sent Him, and those who have no love for God will not love them. Those who belong to the world are loved by the world, but believers are not of the world, so obedience to the truth brings separation from the world rather than love and honor from it.
A true Christian can have no fellowship with a world where judgment is turned back and justice, truth and equity have failed. He represents a truth that works against all the ambitious plans of the world, and that opposition is why the world hates Christ's followers. Therefore the praise, confidence and friendship of the world are no proof of rightness but cause for alarm.
This love belongs with obedience to Him as friends, with laying down life for friends, with bearing lasting fruit and with witness to Him, and it is to continue even when the world hates and persecutes His followers for His sake. It remains their duty even when they are accused or hated for faithfully speaking the truth, because the world's hatred arises from their not being of the world and from its not knowing the Father. Those who follow Christ and work to bring people to Him may be hated as He was, yet they are to keep loving one another. When their message is rejected they are to remember Jesus and continue sowing the truth, and when they refuse the path of transgression and disobedience that offends God, hatred comes against them from those who hold hatred in their hearts toward the disciples, but mutual love remains commanded.
Sharing His reproach is no cause for complaint, for followers must expect false witness and reproach as Christ received it. The world will lay stumbling blocks in the way, and nothing else is to be expected from the world, including persecution as He was persecuted. This love is therefore practiced by refusing to assume evil or spread reproach against fellow believers and by seeking unity instead.
Unity and Witness
Those joined to Christ the true Vine draw life and nourishment from the same Source, and that shared life preserves unity and mutual love without erasing individual differences or requiring uniformity. This is the love church members are to manifest for one another as Christ loved them, working together in church capacity according to God's plan without disarrangement or breaking up into separate atoms. By this unity and love the world is convinced of the genuineness of Christianity and a powerful influence is exerted in favor of the truth, making the cause a power in the world through appointed agencies. The chapter holding the command belongs with John 14, 16, and 17 to be studied carefully and prayerfully with a heart softened and subdued, giving ideas that make wise unto salvation.
Loving one another is a decided, positive command to be measured by His own love that lays down life for friends, demanding doers and not hearers only. When believers are one with Christ they will be one with each other, united as Christ is in the Father, and through the Holy Spirit this unity is attainable, binding hearts together by sanctifying grace, increasing affection for fellow believers, and reflecting His holy character in meekness and gentleness. Like beams of light widening as they recede from their center, believers separate as they distance from Christ the center of love and light, and draw necessarily close to each other as they draw close to Him. Love for God cannot exist without love for brethren, and dissension, discord, and coldness toward brethren come from walking apart from Christ. The love commanded cherishes love for one another rather than hatred, belongs to the unity prayed for, puts away evil thoughts and words, lives in harmony with God, and presses together in Christian fellowship despite differences in character, with His love transforming believers to show respect, kindness, and love to those who love God.
Keeping the commandment is a step heavenward that gives God's people their distinction and true supremacy. This love is joined to unity among believers, through which the world may believe that the Father sent Christ. Those commanded are those He Himself chose and ordained, not they Him, to unite their souls to Him and go and bring forth fruit that remains, with the promise that whatever they ask the Father in His name will be given. Love for one another is thus the ordained life and work of those in Christ, uprooting selfishness and unfaithfulness, ending strife and divisions and stubborn independence, binding heart to heart in fellowship and in oneness with Christ and the Father, and bearing to the world an unanswerable testimony of the power of Christianity. Pressing together in unity means stopping all surmising of evil, suspicion, criticism, faultfinding, backbiting, falsehood, and doing evil to brethren, and instead walking uprightly, working righteousness, speaking truth, and doing no harm to a neighbor.
This fulfills the longing and prayer that His chosen people be made perfect in one as He and the Father are one, so the world may believe and know that the Father sent Him. It reinforces the command in John 15:12 to love as He loved, and this love is a mark of disciples and a united witness to the world, lived by sharing in the divine life through faith and keeping His sacrifice in view. The measure was laying aside His crown to come to earth so humanity could touch humanity. Mere profession of keeping God's commandments is no evidence of keeping them, for true obedience requires love to God and love to neighbor, and when believers love one another as He loved them, the world will know they belong to Him. The command stands even when the world hates those chosen out of the world, and followers must expect false witness and reproach as He received it without complaint, since they share His reproach.
For ministers and workers the command is to be believed and lived out, including in the conduct of ministers toward one another, as part of the chapters in which God's will is plainly outlined. God's agencies must work in perfect harmony, because nothing on earth is so dear to God as His church, nothing is guarded by Him with such jealous care, and nothing so offends Him as injury inflicted on His servants and His church. For undershepherds the command is fulfilled by directing people to Christ as the source of all power for a work that will bear test and trial, not to any human disciple or human strength for drink and peace. Those who minister in word and doctrine love one another by laboring together with God in perfect unity and love, each doing his own given work while bearing fruit to the glory of God. That love reveals Christlike love through patience and forbearance, controlling thoughts and words, daily emptying the heart of self and selfishness, and living as distinct branches of the true Vine drawing sustenance from one Source. This belongs to God's will plainly outlined in John 13-17, which is to be believed exactly as spoken, watched unto in prayer, stood for faithfully, and lived out before fellow ministers.
Conflict and disunity instead show that believers have lost the love of God, while their love for each other is to bear fruit that remains and to give the world evidence that they belong to Him. Living the instruction in practical life cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ. Such unity and love strengthen believers against Satan's attacks and help them stand the test, and that unity is a strength against the enemy. Dissension and the pursuit of personal rank show that the instruction is not being lived.
Practical Christian Living
Loving one another is a central lesson in Christ's teaching, part of the education to be learned and taught by example. Parents are to teach children to love them and to return their love. This instruction belongs to all who claim to be Christians, it is needed in every home, and it is a condition of receiving grace and of belonging among His people when He comes in glory. Obedience begins in the home where fathers and mothers refuse a scolding spirit because scolding gains nothing, and instead raise children in nurture and admonition by teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The same rule of love governs marriage, for His rule over the church is not that of a taskmaster but is governed by wisdom and love for the good of those who follow Him. He treats His followers as friends and calls them to love as He loved them, even to giving His life, and by that principle a husband's love for his wife is to be tender, compassionate and life-giving, not harsh, selfish or harmful. His example teaches husbands to exercise authority toward their wives with tenderness and love.
Among workers this love means drawing together in counsel, companionship, spirit and work. It is shown through unity, mutual respect and candid counsel, through respectful, impartial fellowship without favoritism or hypocrisy, through sharing plans openly and considering them prayerfully together, and through honoring each person rather than leaving one person in control while others are excluded. It calls for humility, so that no one treats his own wisdom as beyond error or his position as more important than another's, with no rivalry or self-importance.
This love refuses to assume evil or spread reproach against fellow believers, and it puts away surmising of evil, suspicion, criticism, faultfinding, backbiting, falsehood, unkind talk, passing judgment that harms souls and damages the work, and doing evil to brethren. Instead it trusts and cares for fellow believers, walks uprightly, works righteousness, speaks truth, does no harm to a neighbor, and expresses the oneness of believers in Christ and likeness to God. Its principles direct believers to Christ rather than dwelling on the real or supposed faults of fellow church members.
Toward the erring, love acts in a scriptural and compassionate way. Those who had acted unwisely toward them confessed, sought forgiveness, and recognized that their conduct had driven some away from the church, and restoration of those driven away belongs to keeping the command. Mercy receives the tempted, deceived, perverse and almost destroyed soul, takes that poor deluded soul by the hand, surrounds her with favorable influence, receives her into the home, and does all that can be done to help her heavenward and restore her rather than leaving her alone to ruin. Help is not to wait for evidence of transformation of character before it is given, because the Holy Spirit alone molds and fashions character, while the one helped is to keep in the love of God, humble herself under God's hand, and learn daily meekness and lowliness to control a temperament that is always a snare. Even after a fellow worker has been an adversary and caused hurt, love does all possible to save the soul, accepts confession and repeated pleadings for another trial even without marked change, opens the door and welcomes back to the fold and to connection with the work rather than closing the door of hope, acting as Christ would act in the same place.
The love commanded requires open, active labor for souls, for it is a defining mark of disciples and of the sacred character of a Christian. It is unselfish, tender concern and thoughtful kindness toward fellow workers, with each caring for a brother as for himself, showing kindness and courtesy, taking unselfish interest in each laborer, and regarding brethren as people to serve and care for rather than treating them with indifference. Christ's love for souls fills the heart of the sincere worker, keeping servants watching and praying and using every opportunity to speak a word for Christ and to give away literature, because it is deplorable for any human being to stray from God who came to seek and save the lost. Men and women therefore cannot stay silent or do so little, but must work with all might, redeem lost time, warn neighbors, friends and unbelievers, and bring many to knowledge of the truth. This love produces perfect unity among all workers in God's great moral vineyard, while those who remain in the living Vine obey His teachings and bear fruit that makes an impression on the world, in sharp contrast to the world.
The command is plain, leaving no room for misunderstanding, giving a duty to be carefully studied and earnestly practiced daily at home, in the family and in the church, with love to Jesus expressed in love to one another unto the ending of unhappy dissensions. Keeping it bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Disregard brings guilt before God, dishonors Him, and gives the world reason to doubt Christianity, so it calls for stern repentance and redeeming the time by seeking in heart and life the spirit of His prayer for oneness. His words do not abide in those who are selfish, love money, prize people by wealth, and separate themselves from the poor and distressed, whereas those who follow His mission to bring good news to the meek, comfort the suffering and lift the needy use their gifts to serve others rather than exalt themselves, revealing whether they share His character and can be trusted with eternal riches.
This love belongs with walking according to the principles of God's Word, and those who do so may take a course that rebukes opposers. It cherishes love rather than hatred, puts away evil thoughts and words, lives in harmony with God, and presses together in Christian fellowship despite differences in character, with respect, kindness and love shown to those who love God. It calls for a humble life, not self-exaltation or reliance on personal merit, but a life hidden in Christ and shaped by the way He lived in the world. It reflects His own love in giving His life that people might have eternal life, and when that love is visible in followers it influences others to recognize that they have been with Jesus and learned from Him.
These things He commands is a plain, decided charge to love one another with the same unselfish, steadfast love by which He loved, loving others because they belong to Him who bought them and not because of praise or affection returned.
Its measure is laying down life for friends, shown when He left His crown to take helpless humanity upon Himself and die even for His enemies.
Those He chose are to keep this word as His friends, abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and so go and bring forth fruit that remains.
As branches of the one true Vine they draw near to each other as they draw near to Him, and their oneness made perfect as He and the Father are one proves their discipleship and convinces the world that the Father sent Him.
This love is to be lived in the home, the marriage, and the church in compassionate words and deeds, forbidding suspicion, criticism and discord, restoring the erring and laboring for souls, even while the world that hated Him hates and persecutes them for His name's sake.
Setting and Context
These things were commanded in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when Christ was alone with the eleven before His approaching separation from them. A cruel death was just before Him, yet His words were full of hope and intended to comfort His followers, and this chapter is precious to every believing heart. They belong to His final instruction, counsel and comfort to the disciples before His departure and before His death, words they repeated in later trials and understood fully after the resurrection. They were given to prepare them for their future work, for that work would fail unless human effort was joined with divine power. These lessons were meant to remind them of His love and to strengthen them to face coming trials and temptations, keeping that love in mind in their work and councils. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission, the glorifying of the Father's name through all His humiliation and suffering, which He kept ever before Him and which was His joy.
The command belongs to His teaching on the relation of the branch to the vine, that believers are branches of the true Vine to live in connection with Christ. It is part of the chapters in which God's will is plainly outlined, to be believed and lived out, including in the conduct of ministers toward one another. Those who claim to believe on Jesus Christ should understand the teachings of John 15 and reveal them in the daily life. This is part of God's will plainly outlined in John 13-17, to be believed exactly as spoken, watched unto in prayer, stood for faithfully, and lived out before fellow ministers. It shows that Christ commands those who minister in word and doctrine to love one another by laboring together with God in perfect unity and love, each doing his own given work while bearing fruit to the glory of God. The love commanded means revealing Christlike love through patience and forbearance, controlling thoughts and words, daily emptying the heart of self and selfishness, and living as distinct branches of the true Vine drawing sustenance from one Source, Christ Jesus.
The surrounding words prepare followers for persecution so they will not become discouraged or doubt when it comes. They belong to Jesus' plain talk with His disciples in John 15 and 16 about the difficulties, hatred, conflicts, and manifold afflictions they would meet in the world. He knew every phase of experience and conflict they would face and prepared them for a dark, troubled future and great temptation to lose faith and be discouraged, mingling dark warnings with the bright, hopeful part of the future so they would not fail nor be offended. John 14 through 17 are of highest value for every soul consecrating life to God's service. The command was spoken by Christ knowing the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and it belongs to the encouragement and hope of John 14-16 that imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. The command to love one another is given with the warning that the world will lay stumbling blocks in the way, and nothing else is to be expected from the world.
Together with John 6 and John 13-14 and John 16-17, these words show God's plain will for His people and hold part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world contained in John's gospel. The command belongs to Christ's present work of making believers one with Him in this life to be one with Him through all eternity, putting the Saviour's own life in them, hid with Christ in God, so that even if they die as Christ died they have eternal life, will be raised up at the last day, and have life more abundantly. Christ's instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer when the mind is reshaped by the influence of God's Spirit.
Meaning of the Command
These things are a decided, positive command from the One who gave His life to save souls, plainly spoken so as to leave no room for misunderstanding. It is to be obeyed as doers and not hearers only, carefully studied and earnestly practiced by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in daily life at home, in the family, and in the church. Its teaching is needed in every home and is a condition of receiving grace and of belonging among His people when He comes in glory. Disregard of it brings guilt before God, dishonors Him, and gives the world reason to doubt Christianity, calling for repentance and for redeeming the time by seeking in heart and life the spirit of His prayer for oneness, while keeping it bears to the world the divine credentials that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The love commanded is measured by Christ's own love that lays down life for friends, and it is higher than loving a neighbor as oneself. Christ's death on the cross revealed its meaning and measure, and the disciples understood its significance through that demonstration. It is high, unselfish, steadfast love that does not depend on human praise, affection, or appreciation, but loves others because they belong to Christ who purchased them.
Its measure was shown in laying down His life for His friends, for there is no greater love than this. He laid aside His crown to come to earth so that humanity could touch humanity, took the case of helpless humanity, identified Himself with humanity, and gave His life that people might have eternal life. He died to save even His enemies and prayed for His murderers. When that love is visible in the lives of His followers it influences others to recognize that they have been with Jesus and learned from Him, and it marks them as belonging to Christ.
The charge to love as He loved was new to the disciples because they had not so loved one another, and it gained a new meaning in the light of His self-sacrifice. Through His life and death they were given a new conception of love requiring new ideas, impulses, and principles. The whole work of grace is one continual service of self-denying, self-sacrificing love, flowing as the love of God flowed from Christ every hour of His life on earth, so that all imbued with His Spirit love as He loved and are actuated by His principle in all dealings with one another. The command is not bondage to the law, for His words are spirit and life to be believed and taken at His word, walking out by faith, serving God with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, with the privilege of claiming to be children of God.
This love is shown by following His example of compassionate, self-sacrificing care, rescuing, healing, protecting, and redeeming helpless humanity at His own cost. It is expressed in obedient friendship with Him and in Christian character shown in helpful words and actions, and by sacrificing even life so that others may be blessed, helped, and strengthened to grow in Christ. It calls for tender sympathy and practical care for the poor, oppressed, needy, and strangers, rather than passing by people in need while pursuing apparently great work, as exemplified by the Samaritan's care for a wounded man from a hostile group. Such willingness to sacrifice for another's good is a test of discipleship, showing that Christ abides in the heart and that a life is distinct from the world.
Obedience Fruit and Friendship
Loving one another belongs with obeying as friends who do whatever is commanded, keeping the commandments and abiding in love just as the Son kept the Father's commandments and abode in His love. Love for Christ is shown by keeping His commands, and keeping the commandments, including this command to love one another, is the evidence of love for God. Obedience to God's commandments is the Bible test for those who have received light, and this love is to continue even when the world hates and persecutes, as part of bearing lasting fruit and witnessing to Him. The command is the sum of obedience to His word, measured by His own love in giving His life for the ransom of the world, since there is no greater love than laying down life for friends, and this obedience brings full joy and glorifies Him.
Those commanded are those He chose and ordained, not they Him, to go and bring forth fruit that remains, with the promise that whatever they ask the Father in His name will be given. This calling belongs with distinctness from the world and separation from it, because being chosen out of the world brings the world's hatred as Christ was hated before them, while they are to live in love toward one another. Love for one another is the command given to His chosen, commissioned friends whose work is to bear lasting fruit. It is the ordained life and work of those in Christ and united to Him, uprooting selfishness and unfaithfulness, ending strife and divisions and stubborn independence, binding heart to heart in fellowship and in oneness with Christ and the Father, and bearing to the world an unanswerable testimony of the power of Christianity.
As friends and not servants He made known to them all that He heard of the Father, having chosen and ordained them to bring forth remaining fruit so that the Father answers prayer in His name. Keeping this mutual love fills hearts to overflowing with His joy remaining and made full and with the happiness of God's love. It strengthens those newly turned from darkness to light and from error to truth who believe with the heart and confess with the mouth unto salvation. It brings joy to the heart of Christ and to heavenly intelligences as they see it.
Obedience brings glorious results, for the command demands doers and not hearers only, and when believers are one with Christ they will be one with each other, united as Christ is in the Father. Those united to Christ share His life, and His love received through Him and made active by the Holy Spirit enables them to love one another sincerely with a true, enduring love and not merely familiar regard or passing emotion. Through the Holy Spirit this unity is attainable, binding hearts together by sanctifying grace, increasing affection for fellow believers, and reflecting His holy character in meekness and gentleness. Living this command depends on sharing in the divine life through faith in Christ and keeping His sacrifice in view, and by this love all know they are His disciples, a mark and united witness to the world.
The truths of the chapter assure that faith in His word is shown by taking it into practical life and obeying it, and those who obey the word have eternal life. This command belongs with God's plain will together with John 6 and John 13-14 and John 16-17, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, and belongs to His present work of making believers one with Him in this life to be one with Him through all eternity. Putting His own life in them, hid with Christ in God, even if they die as He died they have eternal life, will be raised up at the last day, and have life more abundantly. Those who walk in faith, obey God's will, and yield their lives to His control are assured of salvation and will remain forever in God's city, and united hearty labor with Christ for victory at every step carries the promise that He is on the side of those who work to the best of their ability to overcome temptation so they are never alone. The verse holds out the privilege of taking hold of the divine nature and becoming partakers of it, having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, making it possible for humanity to grasp divinity so divinity can lift up humanity into unity with Jesus Christ and with God, unto entering through the gates into the city where there is no more death and no more sin and no more temptation, seeing the King in His beauty, and having right to the tree of life.
Keeping this new commandment is a step heavenward, and obedience to it is what will give God's people the supremacy. All who love God supremely will love their neighbor as themselves, while living in transgression of the first four and the last six commandments leaves the Lord able to do very little for them.
Opposition From the World
The command to love one another stands amid the warning that those who follow Christ are not of the world but chosen out of it to live distinct from it and to bear lasting fruit. Because He chose them out of the world, the world hates them as it hated Him first, and their mutual love marks their life as His disciples. That love means standing together as one body, and in that unity there is strength through loyalty to God and to His truth.
The servant is not greater than his Lord, so as men persecuted Christ they will persecute His followers, and as men kept His saying they will keep theirs. All this is done to them for His name's sake because the world does not know the Father who sent Him, and those who have no love for God will not love them. Those who belong to the world are loved by the world, but believers are not of the world, so obedience to the truth brings separation from the world rather than love and honor from it.
A true Christian can have no fellowship with a world where judgment is turned back and justice, truth and equity have failed. He represents a truth that works against all the ambitious plans of the world, and that opposition is why the world hates Christ's followers. Therefore the praise, confidence and friendship of the world are no proof of rightness but cause for alarm.
This love belongs with obedience to Him as friends, with laying down life for friends, with bearing lasting fruit and with witness to Him, and it is to continue even when the world hates and persecutes His followers for His sake. It remains their duty even when they are accused or hated for faithfully speaking the truth, because the world's hatred arises from their not being of the world and from its not knowing the Father. Those who follow Christ and work to bring people to Him may be hated as He was, yet they are to keep loving one another. When their message is rejected they are to remember Jesus and continue sowing the truth, and when they refuse the path of transgression and disobedience that offends God, hatred comes against them from those who hold hatred in their hearts toward the disciples, but mutual love remains commanded.
Sharing His reproach is no cause for complaint, for followers must expect false witness and reproach as Christ received it. The world will lay stumbling blocks in the way, and nothing else is to be expected from the world, including persecution as He was persecuted. This love is therefore practiced by refusing to assume evil or spread reproach against fellow believers and by seeking unity instead.
Unity and Witness
Those joined to Christ the true Vine draw life and nourishment from the same Source, and that shared life preserves unity and mutual love without erasing individual differences or requiring uniformity. This is the love church members are to manifest for one another as Christ loved them, working together in church capacity according to God's plan without disarrangement or breaking up into separate atoms. By this unity and love the world is convinced of the genuineness of Christianity and a powerful influence is exerted in favor of the truth, making the cause a power in the world through appointed agencies. The chapter holding the command belongs with John 14, 16, and 17 to be studied carefully and prayerfully with a heart softened and subdued, giving ideas that make wise unto salvation.
Loving one another is a decided, positive command to be measured by His own love that lays down life for friends, demanding doers and not hearers only. When believers are one with Christ they will be one with each other, united as Christ is in the Father, and through the Holy Spirit this unity is attainable, binding hearts together by sanctifying grace, increasing affection for fellow believers, and reflecting His holy character in meekness and gentleness. Like beams of light widening as they recede from their center, believers separate as they distance from Christ the center of love and light, and draw necessarily close to each other as they draw close to Him. Love for God cannot exist without love for brethren, and dissension, discord, and coldness toward brethren come from walking apart from Christ. The love commanded cherishes love for one another rather than hatred, belongs to the unity prayed for, puts away evil thoughts and words, lives in harmony with God, and presses together in Christian fellowship despite differences in character, with His love transforming believers to show respect, kindness, and love to those who love God.
Keeping the commandment is a step heavenward that gives God's people their distinction and true supremacy. This love is joined to unity among believers, through which the world may believe that the Father sent Christ. Those commanded are those He Himself chose and ordained, not they Him, to unite their souls to Him and go and bring forth fruit that remains, with the promise that whatever they ask the Father in His name will be given. Love for one another is thus the ordained life and work of those in Christ, uprooting selfishness and unfaithfulness, ending strife and divisions and stubborn independence, binding heart to heart in fellowship and in oneness with Christ and the Father, and bearing to the world an unanswerable testimony of the power of Christianity. Pressing together in unity means stopping all surmising of evil, suspicion, criticism, faultfinding, backbiting, falsehood, and doing evil to brethren, and instead walking uprightly, working righteousness, speaking truth, and doing no harm to a neighbor.
This fulfills the longing and prayer that His chosen people be made perfect in one as He and the Father are one, so the world may believe and know that the Father sent Him. It reinforces the command in John 15:12 to love as He loved, and this love is a mark of disciples and a united witness to the world, lived by sharing in the divine life through faith and keeping His sacrifice in view. The measure was laying aside His crown to come to earth so humanity could touch humanity. Mere profession of keeping God's commandments is no evidence of keeping them, for true obedience requires love to God and love to neighbor, and when believers love one another as He loved them, the world will know they belong to Him. The command stands even when the world hates those chosen out of the world, and followers must expect false witness and reproach as He received it without complaint, since they share His reproach.
For ministers and workers the command is to be believed and lived out, including in the conduct of ministers toward one another, as part of the chapters in which God's will is plainly outlined. God's agencies must work in perfect harmony, because nothing on earth is so dear to God as His church, nothing is guarded by Him with such jealous care, and nothing so offends Him as injury inflicted on His servants and His church. For undershepherds the command is fulfilled by directing people to Christ as the source of all power for a work that will bear test and trial, not to any human disciple or human strength for drink and peace. Those who minister in word and doctrine love one another by laboring together with God in perfect unity and love, each doing his own given work while bearing fruit to the glory of God. That love reveals Christlike love through patience and forbearance, controlling thoughts and words, daily emptying the heart of self and selfishness, and living as distinct branches of the true Vine drawing sustenance from one Source. This belongs to God's will plainly outlined in John 13-17, which is to be believed exactly as spoken, watched unto in prayer, stood for faithfully, and lived out before fellow ministers.
Conflict and disunity instead show that believers have lost the love of God, while their love for each other is to bear fruit that remains and to give the world evidence that they belong to Him. Living the instruction in practical life cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ. Such unity and love strengthen believers against Satan's attacks and help them stand the test, and that unity is a strength against the enemy. Dissension and the pursuit of personal rank show that the instruction is not being lived.
Practical Christian Living
Loving one another is a central lesson in Christ's teaching, part of the education to be learned and taught by example. Parents are to teach children to love them and to return their love. This instruction belongs to all who claim to be Christians, it is needed in every home, and it is a condition of receiving grace and of belonging among His people when He comes in glory. Obedience begins in the home where fathers and mothers refuse a scolding spirit because scolding gains nothing, and instead raise children in nurture and admonition by teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The same rule of love governs marriage, for His rule over the church is not that of a taskmaster but is governed by wisdom and love for the good of those who follow Him. He treats His followers as friends and calls them to love as He loved them, even to giving His life, and by that principle a husband's love for his wife is to be tender, compassionate and life-giving, not harsh, selfish or harmful. His example teaches husbands to exercise authority toward their wives with tenderness and love.
Among workers this love means drawing together in counsel, companionship, spirit and work. It is shown through unity, mutual respect and candid counsel, through respectful, impartial fellowship without favoritism or hypocrisy, through sharing plans openly and considering them prayerfully together, and through honoring each person rather than leaving one person in control while others are excluded. It calls for humility, so that no one treats his own wisdom as beyond error or his position as more important than another's, with no rivalry or self-importance.
This love refuses to assume evil or spread reproach against fellow believers, and it puts away surmising of evil, suspicion, criticism, faultfinding, backbiting, falsehood, unkind talk, passing judgment that harms souls and damages the work, and doing evil to brethren. Instead it trusts and cares for fellow believers, walks uprightly, works righteousness, speaks truth, does no harm to a neighbor, and expresses the oneness of believers in Christ and likeness to God. Its principles direct believers to Christ rather than dwelling on the real or supposed faults of fellow church members.
Toward the erring, love acts in a scriptural and compassionate way. Those who had acted unwisely toward them confessed, sought forgiveness, and recognized that their conduct had driven some away from the church, and restoration of those driven away belongs to keeping the command. Mercy receives the tempted, deceived, perverse and almost destroyed soul, takes that poor deluded soul by the hand, surrounds her with favorable influence, receives her into the home, and does all that can be done to help her heavenward and restore her rather than leaving her alone to ruin. Help is not to wait for evidence of transformation of character before it is given, because the Holy Spirit alone molds and fashions character, while the one helped is to keep in the love of God, humble herself under God's hand, and learn daily meekness and lowliness to control a temperament that is always a snare. Even after a fellow worker has been an adversary and caused hurt, love does all possible to save the soul, accepts confession and repeated pleadings for another trial even without marked change, opens the door and welcomes back to the fold and to connection with the work rather than closing the door of hope, acting as Christ would act in the same place.
The love commanded requires open, active labor for souls, for it is a defining mark of disciples and of the sacred character of a Christian. It is unselfish, tender concern and thoughtful kindness toward fellow workers, with each caring for a brother as for himself, showing kindness and courtesy, taking unselfish interest in each laborer, and regarding brethren as people to serve and care for rather than treating them with indifference. Christ's love for souls fills the heart of the sincere worker, keeping servants watching and praying and using every opportunity to speak a word for Christ and to give away literature, because it is deplorable for any human being to stray from God who came to seek and save the lost. Men and women therefore cannot stay silent or do so little, but must work with all might, redeem lost time, warn neighbors, friends and unbelievers, and bring many to knowledge of the truth. This love produces perfect unity among all workers in God's great moral vineyard, while those who remain in the living Vine obey His teachings and bear fruit that makes an impression on the world, in sharp contrast to the world.
The command is plain, leaving no room for misunderstanding, giving a duty to be carefully studied and earnestly practiced daily at home, in the family and in the church, with love to Jesus expressed in love to one another unto the ending of unhappy dissensions. Keeping it bears the divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Disregard brings guilt before God, dishonors Him, and gives the world reason to doubt Christianity, so it calls for stern repentance and redeeming the time by seeking in heart and life the spirit of His prayer for oneness. His words do not abide in those who are selfish, love money, prize people by wealth, and separate themselves from the poor and distressed, whereas those who follow His mission to bring good news to the meek, comfort the suffering and lift the needy use their gifts to serve others rather than exalt themselves, revealing whether they share His character and can be trusted with eternal riches.
This love belongs with walking according to the principles of God's Word, and those who do so may take a course that rebukes opposers. It cherishes love rather than hatred, puts away evil thoughts and words, lives in harmony with God, and presses together in Christian fellowship despite differences in character, with respect, kindness and love shown to those who love God. It calls for a humble life, not self-exaltation or reliance on personal merit, but a life hidden in Christ and shaped by the way He lived in the world. It reflects His own love in giving His life that people might have eternal life, and when that love is visible in followers it influences others to recognize that they have been with Jesus and learned from Him.