Everything was about to change. The time was approaching for Jesus to lay down His life for us. With the heart of a servant, He readied His disciples and prepared the way as He gave a new command – to love one another.
Read Me Next! – Sunday Devotionals
A New Command?
The beauty of this verse is that the command wasn’t necessarily new. Jesus instructs His disciples that the second greatest command is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). So what was different about this command? What made it new? Well, Jesus. His entire ministry was a pattern of how we were to love each other. How He taught and what He taught was a pattern of love. When He healed, how He corrected and offered grace and forgiveness was a demonstration of love. Leading by example, He humbled Himself as He laid aside His outer clothing and poured water into a basin, washing the feet of His disciples.
What Jesus patterned was not predicated on what we desire for ourselves but that which is observed through the life of Jesus. The command was no longer about how you love yourself but how Jesus loves you. When you are struggling to serve your brother and sister in Christ, look to Jesus. He is our example. An example that patterned one who came to serve. This is the new command. To love, therefore live like Jesus.
Scripture To Meditate On
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.”
“Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
“The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ”
With Love,
Tamara
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References:
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
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