³⁴ “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Standard of love can be a self-defining, relative sort of thing. To love as you have been loved depends upon the love with which you have been loved. If God is the one who has loved you, and indeed He has, then the standard is quite high. This leads to the so-called “Love, period” sort of love. There can be no keeping score with God, no out-loving Him. We can’t get Him to love us more. He has loved us so completely and graciously, how can we not love Him back in like manner?

Yet how can we love Him the way He has loved us? His is so much greater, more holy than ours. His is absolutely perfect. We can never love like He does. However, love when understood properly is something that a finite can do just as much of as the infinite. Love is defined not in terms of giving what we don’t have, but in giving what we do have. I give simply of myself, and that is like God. I mimic Him, who gave of Himself, so I give of myself. We are called to love as He loved. And that is something that is humanly possible, if understood humbly but correctly.

The word “love” as used here by Jesus is the Greek word “agape,” which means a sacrificial love. Before the Christian era, the word did exist but it was not common. In Greek and especially Roman culture, sacrificial love was not held as a high character trait, but more as a weakness. Status was not attained through sacrificing oneself for others, but by establishing one’s superiority over others. It was the Christian community that adopted and “popularized” the word to convey the attitude of God toward us so that it came to be the defining characteristic quality (see the next verse) of the followers of Christ.

So while the world says in effect, “Love your neighbor as they have loved you,” and the Law of Moses says, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus says, “Love one another, even as I have loved you.” Anything less that Jesus’ standard becomes completely relative, circumstantially based. If my love for someone depends upon his love for me, then the least fault in his love toward me (and be sure that he will have faults in his love for me, as I too will have for him), will lead to a diminishing of the love both of us actually express. This becomes a vicious cycle that degenerates into no love at all. Further, the faulty thinking of today that says I must first love myself before I can adequately love others, falls flat before Jesus’ words here. The higher standard is Jesus’ love.

Lord, I want to love others with the highest possible standard, with the love You have for me. But Lord,I need Your help to do this.