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Jesus said,
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13:34)
Jesus said he gave them a new commandment.
But it was not a new commandment.
Already, in the Old Testament, this commandment existed.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)
So, as you see it, it was not a new commandment.
Jesus did not mean that it was the new commandment as a new idea or a new concept.
Love one another.
It is a very simple concept. Nothing difficult to understand it. Even a little child will understand what it means.
We went to see a Blue Jays ball game because my grandson, Charlie was singing the national anthem. Not a solo but his school was singing. So the whole family went.
My youngest granddaughter, Norah, came and hugged me. So I said, “I love you.” And she said, “I love you too.”
Even a little child knows what it means to love one another.
It is a very very simple concept.
But what does that mean? Love one another. It is very simple and yet very difficult.
When Jesus said this, he did not mean to love those who are lovable.
Jesus did not mean to love your personal friends. Jesus did not mean to love your family. Of course we love them all but I don’t think Jesus had them in mind when he said to love one another.
We have categories of our love. Lovable and unlovable.
We love those who are lovable. We don’t love those who are unlovable.
When I say an unlovable category, I am not saying that they are necessarily unlovable. We are putting them in that category.
With our friends, with those who love us, we love to spend time with them. We don’t have to have anything fun to talk about. We just enjoy their company and so it doesn’t matter what we talk about.
Anything we do, we just enjoy it. That is a lovable category.
But with those who criticize us, those who do not value us, and approve us, we may not hate them but we don’t want to spend time with them. We want to avoid them as much as possible.
That is an unlovable category.
When Jesus said, love one another, what do you think Jesus meant? Love those who are in a lovable category? Think about it.
Today’s passage is situated like a sandwich. Of course, what’s in the middle is the meat, the core content. That is – Love One Another.
But it is sandwiched between two stories. One is the story of Judas and the other is the story of Peter.
Today’s passage begins with this,
When he had gone out… (John 13:31)
Who had gone out? Judas.
Let us read Judas’ story. A little long but you will get a full picture by reading it.
After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. (John 13:21-30)
Another story is the story of Peter.
Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterwards.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times. (John 13:36-38)
What we read today is sandwiched between these two stories. Betrayal and denial sandwiched the commandment “Love one another”.
Jesus talked about loving one another in the context of betrayal and denial.
So when Jesus said “Love one another”, he didn’t mean to love those who are in the lovable category.
Loving those who love you is selfish love. Love for the sake of your own enjoyment and your own benefit. It is love that you do for yourself. Everywhere we look around, we only see this kind of love.
Love has become so cheap. Self-satisfaction. Loving one another has become satisfying one another.
This was what Jesus said.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. (Luke 6:32)
Love, by its definition, is not selfish. It is not self-seeking.
When Jesus said, “Love one another”, he meant to love those who are in unlovable category.
“Love your enemies”- even though the idea is there in the Old Testament, the actual phrase does not come out in the Old Testament. It is Jesus who coined the term. But that is the idea of Jesus’ understanding of love.
In that sense, “Love one another” is a very easy concept but a very difficult way to live out your life.
Our natural instinct is to surround ourselves with people who love us, appreciate us, and praise us.
But Christians need to go beyond this comfort zone and reach out to those who are not in a unlovable category.
Every Sunday, don’t surround yourself always with people you are comfortable with. Go out of your comfort zone and reach out to those who are strangers to you. Reach out to those who may not even like you.
Bon Hoeffer said Christian fellowship is a great blessing. God gave you the Christian fellowship to be renewed and strengthened.
But he said, the Christian fellowship can also be a temptation when you become complacent in that fellowship.
The disciples did not stay together but soon they all went their separate ways. Loving one another is not just enjoying each other’s company. There is a Korean term, 끼리 끼리 (kkiri-kkiri). It is like the saying “birds of a feather flock together”.
That’s why Jesus said,
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ (John 13:35)
Loving one another is a discipleship. That is what Jesus’ disciples do.
Discipleship is sometimes a lonely way to follow Jesus. That lonely way is the way of loving one another.
In chapter 13, a lot of things are going on. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he did the last supper, and he gave the bread to Judas and told him to go ahead and he predicted Peter’s denial. And he said to love one another as my disciples.
Then in chapters 14-16, he talks about the Holy Spirit. He talks about the Holy Spirit in the context of loving one another.
Let me give you an example.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. (John 14:15, 16)
You can love one another only through the help of the Holy Spirit.
Because loving one another is not a natural inclination you follow. It is going against the grain. You cannot do it with your own strength.
Love one another – is an easy concept and not a new idea.
But it is a new commandment because with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can live out the commandment of love. Through this love, you become a bigger person.
There are many people in this world who are in unlovable category. There are people who are in unlovable category to you.
Jesus commanded us to love one another. It is the commandment and so we need to take it seriously.
Love is not a feeling. Love is not an action, either. Love is to embrace those who are in unlovable category.
Jesus was a friend to those who were in unlovable category in that time.
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