John 13:34; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, EVEN AS I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
I believe most Christians have understated what this verse in John is actually saying. Most Christians interpret that verse to simply mean that the new commandment is for us to love each other, In light of the fact that Jesus loves us. But notice how it’s put in that verse; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” I don’t believe Jesus is just telling them in light of the fact that He has loved us, we should love each other. Instead, I believe it is much bigger than that because I believe what Jesus is actually saying is that we are to love each other with the same love God loves God with. It says in John 15 and again in John 17 that Jesus loves us the same way God loves God and that Father loves us the same way God loves God.
Let me show you what I’m talking about from John 15:9; “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; abide in my love.” When Jesus says, just as the Father loved Him, He’s talking about 2 persons of the Godhead, and Jesus is saying that He loves us the same way the Father God loves the son of God. The way God loves God is the way that Jesus loves us. I’m not saying we are God; I’m just saying He loves us the same way God loves God. So, when you go back to John 13:34, where Jesus says we’re to love one another, even as He has loved us, He is saying that we are called to love each other the way the Trinity loves each other. Now that is a great elevation from what most people think about when they interpret this particular Scripture about the new commandment we are called to walk in.
There is a problem, though; this is impossible. How in the world can I love another person the same way God loves God? The obvious reality is that apart from some kind of supernatural thing going on inside of me, it can’t be done, but the glorious truth is, because there is someone supernatural living inside of me, that which appears to be part impossible to me is not impossible to the one who lives in and desires to live through me. Look at John 17: 23, 26, “and the glory which you have given me I have given to them that they may be one, just as we are one, I IN THEM, and you and me that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that thou didst send me and has loved them even as thou does love me.” Now notice what He says at the beginning of verse 23; I in them and you and me, and then look at what verse 26 says, “and I have made your name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Do you see that? Because He’s in me, the love that He, the Father, has for Jesus is in me. The same love that God loves God with is in me because Christ is in me, and therefore, because I am in union with Christ and brought into the love fellowship of the Trinity, I am able to love my brothers and sisters with that same love. That’s a game changer, and to some people, that might make them feel guilty. But, anytime we talk about moving into Christlikeness and advancing in Christlikeness, it should bring fascination, not condemnation. This is the incarnation of Christianity. Jesus Christ lives in us to live His life out through us, and therefore, whenever He invites us to participate in godliness or the things that reflect the life of God, it should always fascinate us because everything Jesus commands of us, He is prepared, by the Holy Spirit, to perform through us.