Main news for 21 December 2021

King James Version (en)

John, Chapter 13, verses 34-35

³⁴A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

³⁵By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

NOTES

Jesus has gathered His disciples for the final meal, the meal of the covenant. He gives them a new law unlike the old one. His commandment...

The Savior's words about love as a new commandment may at first glance seem somewhat strange. What, after all, is new here? In the gospel era everyone knew that the essence of the Torah came down to two commandments: love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This was a commonplace of the rabbinic tradition of that era. So what is new in Jesus' commandment about love? First of all: it is the love of the Kingdom. Love one another as I love you - this is the main meaning of the commandment Jesus gives. But what does the love of the Kingdom mean? The Bible says a great deal about love. And if we reflect on all that is said, we can conclude that in the Bible love is first of all a relation.

An intention directed toward a person or toward God. First of all will, not emotions and not reflections. But also relations in the sense in which people say that they unite people with one another. Love is the striving for communion; hatred is the unwillingness to commune. And if there are no relations, no intention, then there is neither love nor hatred. But the medium within which communion takes place remains natural in our world. Psychic. And the psyche is part of nature, though a very special part.

And our communion in this world remains in many respects a natural process because of the medium in which it takes place. Intention as the basis of communion is spiritual, while the medium is natural. In the Kingdom, however, everything is different. Natural structures exist in themselves according to the laws of nature. But the Kingdom is not nature; its structure is formed by relations. The relations of its inhabitants with God and with Christ, their relations with one another, and finally the relations of Christ Himself with His heavenly Father as the foundation of the Kingdom, form its, the Kingdom's, structure.

But the nature of the Kingdom, or rather what replaces nature in it, is love. God's breath, filling the Kingdom, becomes love in it. And all relations in it are possible only as relations of love. Love is the medium of the Kingdom, in which all interactions among its inhabitants take place. And the meaning of the new commandment Jesus gives is precisely that His followers should live in this medium. That they should abide in the Kingdom. Together with Him. This new life is Christianity.

Today's reading helps us understand more deeply the nature of the Kingdom and its difference from our world, which has not yet been transformed...

Today's reading helps us understand more deeply the nature of the Kingdom and its difference from our world, which has not yet been transformed. The passage concerns Jesus' words at the Last Supper, commonly called the ‘commandment of love’ (verses 34–35). At first sight, these words seem somewhat strange. Indeed, what could the apostles have found new in a call to mutual love? The need to love one's neighbour is spoken of extensively in the Old Testament, in the writings of learned rabbis and in the teachings of Torah teachers. Yet Jesus' words contained something no one before Him had spoken of. It is no accident that the call to mutual love comes immediately after His words about the glory with which the Father is glorified in the Son and the Son in the Father (verses 31–32). ‘Glory’ here evidently means God's presence, which accompanied the Jewish people throughout their history, beginning with the Exodus, and dwelt first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. It is no surprise that the Kingdom too is permeated by this presence. Yet it was Jesus' disciples who were to carry the Kingdom into our world as it undergoes transformation; this task was entrusted to the apostles and to those who would become their followers (John 17:18–21). And apparently the easiest way to recognize Jesus' disciples is by those expressions of love which are the signs of the Kingdom brought into the world by the Saviour. Of course, such expressions of love were known in the world before Christ's coming. In the biblical understanding, love is above all not emotion but an attitude toward another. The one who loves is not the one who admires or delights in the beloved, and certainly not the one who flatters them, but the one who wishes them good—not merely in words, of course, but in deeds. In the Kingdom, however, love becomes something more than a simple attitude. Any relationship involves interaction with the one to whom we relate, and interaction is possible only within a particular medium that carries it. In our world, not yet fully transformed, that medium is the realm of the psyche, associated with expressions of our inner life that do not go beyond the existing order of things. So-called earthly love is only a glimmer of the Kingdom penetrating a world afflicted by evil and sin. But Jesus speaks of a love that can be regarded as a manifestation of the Kingdom itself, a love that forms, so to speak, the very substance of the Kingdom. Human beings are incapable of such love; it can be received only as a gift conveyed by the Saviour from the Father. But a person can become a bearer of this love in a world awaiting transformation and renewal, and it appears that this is precisely what Jesus calls His disciples to do. He calls them to receive the Kingdom, to enter it, to make their home in it and, while living in the Kingdom, to carry it with them and reveal it to the world. This is the Church's principal and sole task. Everything else is only a means of accomplishing it.

FAQ

What human characteristics should a chosen one (bride) possess for a long and happy family life?

It is rather curious that you ask this question on a biblical website. But since you have, the answer must be sought not in human experience, but in the Bible...

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