What Made The Love Command New

Jesus called it a new commandment, which is odd, because loving people was already in the law. So what was actually new about it?

John 13:34 says, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." There it is. The new part is the measure.

The old standard was loving your neighbour as yourself. Jesus pushed it past that. He loved us more than Himself, and He proved it by handing over His own life instead of protecting it.

John watched all of it up close, and he wrote in 1 John 2:7-8: "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth."

Notice what changed. Not the rule, the visibility. Darkness had blurred what love even was, and Jesus turned the light on, so now you know what you are looking at.

And you are not asked to produce this out of your own supply. That love was put in you when Christ came in, and the Holy Spirit releases it through you when you stop guarding yourself. Let it pass through today to whoever is nearest.