Love One Another
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - John 13:34
Love is certainly not a new command or a new concept to the Christian. It is not even a concept that is confined to Christianity alone. Many religions teach about love and promote it as one of the keys to the religion.
The new command that Jesus gives His disciples is a new kind of love. It is not a vague and general love that many people feel for each other. It is a deep and self sacrificing love that only a few of capable of showing.
Beginning in John 13, Jesus warns His disciples in earnest that He would be leaving them and that He would go to die on the cross. They don't fully understand it until later. This is the ultimate example of the self sacrificing love that Jesus is instructing His disciples to display.
The love that Jesus demonstrates for His disciples and for the whole world is a new kind of love that hasn't been seen before. This is why Jesus is able to call it a new command.
People will be able to identify Jesus' followers by this type of love because it is so different from the way the rest of the world loves. This new, self sacrificing love will set the disciples and us apart from everyone else.
As the hymn reminds us, "They will know that we are Christians by our love."