A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35
This was the verse of choice of my confirmation mentor when I was in middle school. He loved it. He could prattle on about it for what seemed like hours on end. I remember not thinking much of it then. It’s almost an afterthought on Jesus’ part. It is, after all, one of the last things that he says to the Disciples before his death. Whether it was last minute or not, it’s profound. He makes a point to distinguish what kind of love is expected of his disciples. His kind of love. He’s making an addendum to the commandments that God handed down to Moses, which said to love your neighbor as yourself. It’s an important distinction. The original commandment concerning the love of one’s neighbor is lacking in a few ways. If I am to love my neighbor as I love myself, that still leaves room for hatred and disdain. Self-loathing certainly exists, so it’s absolutely possible to follow that commandment and still not love your neighbor as God originally intended.
This verse has more than one dimension to it. Jesus says “all people know that you are my disciples, if you love for one another”. I think that pretty much sums up what he’s all about. To follow Jesus, all that he requires of you is that you love one another as he loves us. We don’t have to stand on street corners and preach the gospel to passers-by, we don’t have to “share this post or go to hell”, we don’t need to overtly proselytize. All that we have to do is love like Jesus. When he says to love each other, he means to love all of each other. Rob Bell has this to say about that: Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, and our neighbor can be anybody. We are all created in the image of God, and we are all sacred, valuable creations of God. Everybody matters. That’s important to realize. Our neighbor can be anybody, and our neighbor is everybody. You can’t pick and choose. You can’t love one person and hate another. I once heard someone say that Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin, which I think is an extremely cynical way to look at things. Love drives out hate. The two are incompatible. So when Jesus says to love our neighbor, he means to love all of them. He means for us to love them in the same way that he loves us. Unconditionally. Unequivocally. Undeniably.
