5Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
Love should be the subject we always circle back to, if we are committed to biblically faithful doctrine. The study of God (which is what the word “theology” means) is the study of love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Without love, our knowledge of theology rings hollow, as Paul writes:
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor. 13:2)
Our passage today reflects what the apostle John personally heard Jesus teach:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34)
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
“This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:17)
The love Jesus commanded never waxed cold in the life and ministry of the apostle John, as we can’t miss from his letters:
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another . . . (1 John 3:11)
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11)
The apostle Paul, who penned the great treatise on justification in the book of Romans, explained the motive behind his instructions to his disciple Timothy: “[T]he goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). Loving God means loving His Son Jesus, and it means doing what He has commanded us to do.
Lord, help me when I fall short of loving others as You have loved me.
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