John 13:31-38
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."
36Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
37Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
38Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Jesus gives the disciples (and us) a new command...The command though in a way is not new (to love your neighbor as yourself -is in Leviticus 19:18)...Jesus is telling His disciples that they will be a unique group, when they love one another...If they can love one another they will be a group who can teach about Him and love...The disciples can use this command of loving one another to show they are following their LORD Jesus...
Jesus tells His disciples that He must go away and that this is one of the reasons for the new command...With their Leader and Master gone, they can distinguish themselves from other groups like the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Essenes, Sadducees, Teachers of the law, and scribes...With the number of groups out there in Jerusalem, they can prove that they are Jesus' disciples, if they love one another...
This seems a simple command to love one another...But as humans, we know that it is not...When we get tired, hungry, in trouble, suffer, pain, competition, threatening circumstances, and what life can throw at us it is hard to follow Jesus' command...But this is what His followers are to do...This is what He wants us to do...Evil and war are not what Jesus is teaching, which we read about regularly...So when we see and read, these things and about others not loving in this world, we can relate that to Jesus' command...It is very difficult to do...Then when we remember Jesus tells us to love our enemies, we wonder how even we can do this -to love one another...
But Peter gives us (or at least this author) some hope, in a sense...Peter wants to follow Jesus wherever He is going...Peter tells Him that he will lay his life down for Him...Jesus straightens Peter out...Jesus says that you (Peter) will not lay down your life for Me, but in fact, you will deny Me three times by the time you hear a rooster crow three times tomorrow morning...As we know Peter does deny Jesus, and this command to love one another has a lapse in Peter's life for a short time...This is my/our hope...We to will have lapses to love one another, in our lives...If St. Peter can have a lapse, and be a sinner, we realize that this can easily happen to us, and does happen...
We are to love one another like the disciples loved one another for Jesus sake...This is what He wants and what He taught...Jesus understands Peter and He understands us...This command is much like the Laws of Moses...So the command of loving others is law, but it is not grace...Thank God we are saved by grace, His grace...We break the law, as Peter broke the law, and denied his love for his Master and Savior that night before His death...Peter would never forget this...We must not pray to go to heaven because we want justice, but we should thank God and pray for His grace and love...
Even though we are guilty and do not deserve to go to heaven, we have hope in His grace and His love...For God did not send His Son into this world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him...Whoever, believes in Him is not condemned...For God so loves the world He gave His Son (for our sins), that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16-18)...