Love one another bible verse john 13 341/14/2024 ![]() “you also are to love one another.” The Greek is a hina with a verb in the subjunctive mood command clause. Nevertheless, Jesus did it, and if we are going to follow Christ and be genuinely loving, we have to do it too. It is the “tough love” that is difficult when we have to confront or reprove people for their words and actions. “Kind love” is easy because being nice to people is usually easy love. ![]() It is not easy to really love others the way Jesus loved. But beyond that, many people are not loving because they do not know the Bible and do not know how God would act, or they do not have the personal courage to act in a truly loving manner if it means confronting sin and evil. Also, there are the ordinary reasons people do not act in love, such as they are selfish or hungry for money or power. Some people do not know that it is important to God that we give special attention and love to our fellow Christians-but that is clearly what the Bible says (cp. People do not act in love, and especially “love one another,” for a number of reasons. It is unloving to allow people to hurt others if we can somehow stop it. It is similar to Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers and driving off their animals (John 2:13-15). Some people today would assert that it is not “loving” to force people to leave your church, but it is what God would do if He Himself were here. For example, there are certain sins that are so egregious that God has those sinners ejected from the church (cp. If we are not acting as God would act, then we are not being loving, even if we think we are. ![]() But we must recognize that all genuine love starts in God and follows His ways. Love is to be the organizing principle that guides everything we do. 1:22 1 John 3:11, 23 4:7, 11, 12 2 John 1:5), and there are other verses that have the same basic meaning but not the same wording. Because of the value and necessity of loving our fellow Christians, this important commandment to love one another is repeated 13 times in the New Testament (John 13:34 twice John 15:12, 17 Rom. “love one another.” It is very important for Christian unity and for our own personal wholeness that we love our fellow Christians (for this love being about our fellow Christians, see commentary above, on “a new commandment”). It is further clarified that “love one another” means to love our fellow believers in the Epistle of John which says we are to love our fellow believers (1 John 2:10 3:10, 14 4:20-21). Believers were to love each other like Christ loved them. Jesus himself made that point clear when he said, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Christ clarified and elevated the Law. They already knew they were to love their neighbor, but now Christ was introducing a new, more elevated, more intense, more selfless love than was clear in the Law. ![]() In the context, “love one another” meant “love the other believers,” not just “love others.” Christians are to have a special love for each other.Ĭhrist looked at his disciples and said they were to love one another. 19:18), and your neighbor was someone near to you. The Law commanded to “love your neighbor” (Lev. That we are supposed to love other people is not new, but what Christ was saying was new in quality and thus different from what had come before. ![]() “a new commandment.” The word “new” is the Greek word kainos (#2537 καινός), which has the emphasis of new in quality, not new in time (which is the Greek neos). ![]()
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