John 13:34

A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another.

THE NEW COMMANDMENT

If this commandment had been merely a restatement of the Mosaic principle of loving one's neighbor as himself, it would not have been new. The newness of it is implicit in the words, "even as I have loved you." As Reynolds stated it:

So a new type of love is given, as the Greek expositors generally have urged. There is a deeper intensity in this love than can be found in Moses' "Love thy neighbor as thyself." In that commandment which embraces the whole law, self-love is assumed and made the standard for the love of neighbor. The new commandment, on the other hand, is based on a new principle, measured by a higher standard than love of self. This is based on Christ's love, which was self-abandoning and self-sacrificing love.[10]

R. W. Frank stated that:

In Christian thought, "God is love." An everlasting, all-comprehensive, benevolent, and sacrificial love is held to be the very essence of God. This redeeming love was revealed in Christ who summed up the law and the prophets in the two-fold commandment of love.[11]

In the earliest ages of the church, there seems to have been far more success on the part of Christians in obeying this commandment than in present times. The lack of love among Christians is a glaring weakness of faith today. Again from Reynolds:

So long as this great power prevailed, the church made astonishing progress; when the so-called disciples of Christ began to hate and kill one another the progress was arrested. But thank God, "the new commandment" has always had marvelous power over the church of Christ.[12]

[10] H. R. Reynolds, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), II, p. 196.

[11] R. W. Frank, Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Philosophical Library, 1945), p. 453.

[12] H. R. Reynolds, op. cit., II, p. 196.