Love: the Gift and Commandment; John 13:31-35

"31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’"

I. Introduction

Both Jesus and Paul speak of love as the foundation of discipleship or the "more excellent way" of conduct among Christians. In this passage love will be the mark of Christian discipleship and distinctiveness. Love is something that is both affective and effective. It is both a feeling and a way of treating others. So important is it for Jesus that he says it is a "new" commandment, even though it is something that is as old as Leviticus (19:18). It is "new" in the sense that its centrality is heightened in Jesus and that it will be love "as I have loved you," i.e., in the manner demonstrated by Jesus. This essay will probe two dimensions of love: love as gift and love as commandment. Before I get there, however, I need to say something about the context and some other ideas in this passage.

II. Context is Everything

The love commandment doesn't come "out of the blue." It appears in a passage where there are lots of other things happening, things which shouldn't go unnoticed. Three of those things are: (1) the role of Peter; (2) the repeated mention of "glory" or "glorification;" and (3) the endearing address "little children," in v. 33.

(1) The Apostle Peter isn't mentioned in these three verses, but he appears in the next two words after this passage (v. 36). When we realize that he also is a major figure in the preceding narrative, we see that the author is trying to make a point about him. Briefly, that point is that Peter misunderstands central points. In the famous footwashing scene of 13:1-11 Peter at first refused to let Jesus wash his feet. Once Jesus had explained the meaning of the event, Peter then wanted his "hands and head" to be washed. This is almost adolescent energy at work. Then, in our passage, after Jesus tells the disciples that he must go away and that therefore they should love one another, Peter only picks up on the first and not the second point. Rather than asking about love, its nature, how it is to be manifest, etc., Peter wonders why I can't follow Jesus now. We have to chuckle. Peter manages to mess up even the most "sacred" or revelatory of situations. This may fit John's theological purpose--to try to show that the beloved disciple is at least equal to, if not superior to Peter in many ways, but it also adds the helpful point that even those closest to Jesus sometimes misconstrue.

(2) The multiple references to glorification in vv. 31-32 have confused scholars, especially the presence of both the past and future tenses. All that you need to know, I think, is that glorification for John has to do with the Jesus' entire process of rejection, crucifixion, resurrection and return to God. Once certain things happen, such as the Greeks coming to him (12:20-23) or Judas' going out to betray him (13:30), it is as if the whole process of salvation has happened. The wheel has been set in motion; the other acts will surely follow. Thus, glorification can be spoken of as something both past and future, as in this passage.

(3) Then there is the charming reference to the disciples as "little children" (v. 33). Jerome, the fourth century Church Father, biblical commentator, translator of the Scriptures into the basic Latin translation which was used for centuries (Vulgate), reported in his commentary on Galatians that when John was an old man, his basic message was reduced to the following: "Little children, love one another." This story is interesting because it suggests something about the composition of 13:31-35. These words ("little children") might have been words so familiar to John in his teaching to his community that he "heard" them as spoken by Jesus. Or, alternatively, he may have been so filled with the memory and Spirit of Christ that he had picked up this most endearing of Christ's hypocorisms. The second part of John's statement--"love one another"--is the focus of my remaining remarks.

III. Love as Gift

One of the most memorable lines to me from St. Augustine, a contemporary of Jerome, is from his Confessions (ca. 397 CE). "Lord, give what you command, and command what you will!" Gift and command are placed together in Augustine's theology, though he realizes that the foundation of command is the gift. When we first read the new commandment in John 13:34-35 we might get the impression that commandment is everything. After all, that is all Jesus seems to mention. But if you read this passage in the light of his words elsewhere in his last discourse (13-17), we see that love is not only a central theme (also central for I John) but that our love is a derivative love. Hear 15:9, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love." Or, John 15:12 puts the commandment in perspective: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." The foundation of the disciples' love for one another (i.e., for other disciples--John isn't here speaking about a love to the world) is Christ's love for them. Christ becomes both the example and the empower. It is as if love is not simply a gift but a sort of presence or power, a sort of state or substance in which the disciples can "remain" or "abide." It becomes something externally manifested because it has already been internally absorbed. Well could we paraphrase Augustine, "Command us to love, as long as you give us this love!" And the Gospel of John says he has.

IV. Love as Commandment

Love is received as gift. It also needs be demonstrated in accordance with Christ's command. Love will be the mark of the community left behind after Christ has departed. He promises the gift of the Spirit, but that is a gift of empowerment that is manifest by conduct in the world. Love is the basis of Christian discipleship and the motivation of Christian action. Love becomes the Christian distinctive. For those of you who are pastors, I think a crucial question about love is whether the congregation is set up in such a way that love can flourish. That is, do we "do Church" in the 21st century in our context in ways that enhance ministries of love or contribute to love? What would a loving 21st century Church look like? A study of John 13-17 might be the first step in discovering that.

I will close with a very long quotation from an early Christian writing (2nd century) called the Letter to Diognetus. We don't know much about the situation which produced this letter, but the author emphasizes how the distinctive Christian conduct is responsible for the growth of the Church in the Roman Empire. In ch. 5 the author uses biblical terminology to explain who the Christians were. He says:

"For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred."

Let Jesus' words, and words such as these, be our inspiration to receive the gift of love and show it forth according to Jesus' commandment.

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