By Brett Wilson, Guest Writer
John 13-17 is Jesus’ final time with His disciples before He is going to be betrayed. And He knows that it is coming. So what does He do? He washes His disciples’ feet, answers their final questions, promises His Spirit to them, and prays for them.
I think to a time when I was in high school and one of my mentors was leaving for schooling and he took the time to sit down with me and talk me through it. Ultimately, he told me that even though he was leaving, this wasn’t an excuse to let my faith go. He encouraged me to keep living for the Lord and move forward. He prayed for me and challenged me even amidst the change as the person that had walked through so much with me was leaving.
In John 13:33-35 we see Jesus do this same thing with the disciples. But this was not just any mentor, this was Jesus Christ who they had walked with, seen do miracles, shared meals with, and did life alongside.
In v. 33 He says: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’” Jesus is saying to the disciples, who haven’t known life without Him since He called them, that He is leaving them. And He leaves them with a “new commandment” and His final call to them.
v. 34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
The beautiful part of this command is how Jesus says, “just as I have loved you.” He laid the foundation and demonstrated a perfect, sacrificial, and gracious love to this world. And as He leaves, He calls His disciples to take it to the world.
1 John 4:19 puts it clearly: “We love because He first loved us.” Our love for the rest of the world is solely based on the powerful love that Jesus Christ has shown us first. That is why Jesus says in v. 35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In a world that is full of hate, division, bitterness, and brokenness, people will recognize the transformative love of Jesus Christ flowing through someone and should know that we are His disciples because of this. Not because we are good at arguing over certain political issues, condemning people that don’t act or look like us, or by being too good for anyone else. The world should know followers of Jesus by the love of Christ that tore down barriers, ate with sinners, rebuked those who upheld the law, and died on a cross for sinners like you and me.
How can we show a love to this world that points to the love that God first showed us? How can we experience God’s love in a way that it transforms us into people more like Him? This is the challenge. What a beautiful God of love and grace that we can live in relationship with.
