John 13:31-35
New Command
31When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Leviticus 19:18
Love Your Neighbor
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
Luke 10:29-37
Who is my Neighbor
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Matthew 18:3
Little Children's Love
3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus gave His disciples a new command versus the old command of loving your neighbor...In His new command we are to love one another, as He loves us...To love your neighbor as yourself is repeated in the Bible...Loving your neighbor as yourself, shows unselfishness and a love for God...But Jesus raises the bar on loving our neighbors...It is very much like His "But I Tell You Statements"...In His "But I Tell You" verses, He adds further to our Ten Commandments...It is very similar here, which shows very much that He is divine...
Our neighbor when Jesus is asked about "who is our neighbor" in Luke, He tells us it is anyone who is near us, and our neighbor is wherever we are, not just our neighbor living next door...Jesus shows us that divine love and acting better can be demonstrated by man, when we love our neighbor and love one another, wherever we go or are at...
In His new command now, the old love thy neighbor standard is raised...He tells His disciples that they should love one another, as He loves...But here is the huge difference, now they must love others and their neighbors, as He has loved them...Jesus is divine...He is perfect...He loves His Father most intimately...His Father is pure love...Now, we are to love our neighbors as He has and can love us...A most powerful command, a most powerful statement to His disciples...He is telling us, our Savior, that we are to love like He loves...We know He even loves His enemies...He also has this quick, innate attribute to forgive quickly and easily, which is a show of love...
Jesus is love...If we are believers we are to demonstrate to others that we love our neighbors in a practical way, as He loves us...By being His disciples, and having a relationship with Him is to show love...Whether we like His command, or do not like it, it certainly can be seen as divine...To follow Him, we must be more like Him...He never says taking us His cross is easy...
When we step back from His new command one might think that to love, which is very important in our lives and the world should or could be easy...But when you examine it as an "adult", I think one realizes how difficult it really is, just to follow the old command of loving your neighbor, wherever you are...I use the word "adult" here, because I really think children of a certain age can do this...I think this is why He tells us, that we must be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven...I think the little child can do this, much better than we can as adults...We must learn to be more like Him and the humbleness of the child...