Sayings of Jesus: “Love One Another”
This title may sound so obvious as to be patently unworthy of a blog article. And that may be so! But let’s give it a go and you can decide at the end (assuming you get that far, of course—I ought not to be presumptuous).
The idea that we should love one another begins with “God is love” (1 John 4:8; 16). Hence, as human beings made in his image—Genesis 1:27: “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”—the core characteristic that we are known for, that we convey to the world, should reflect that. If God is love, we should be love.
“Made in his image” is a lovely idea; it’s both humbling and challenging. But what does it mean? If you’ve ever wondered that, it’s a good question—Scripture doesn’t tell us! That notwithstanding, preachers usually can’t resist telling us. Not wishing to be left behind in that, I would suggest it’s three things, that contrast humanity with the rest of creation. One is that as human beings we have the potential to know God personally. He designed us for relationship with him. Genesis pictures the intimacy of that relationship in Adam and Eve walking with God in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8); God being personally present. Though that intimate, personal presence may subsequently have been lost, we see it restored once more in the age to come (Revelation 21). Two is that we were made with the potential “to be like him” by sharing in his eternal life. And three is the potential for our lives to be defined by the very thing that more than anything else defines God, which is love—love for him and love for each other. I suggest that’s why it’s known as “the Great Commandment.” When Jesus was asked which of the 613 commandments in Torah was the most important, he famously answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:35-40 and parallels).
Keep in mind that Jesus wasn’t being asked what was going to be the most important commandment in the forthcoming new covenant (in other words, he wasn’t introducing a new and different idea to replace what had been the case in Torah up until then). He was saying that this two-part “Great Commandment” always has been the heart and the fulcrum of every divine commandment ever given. And given that the nature, character, plans and purposes of God are eternally unchanging, it remains so to this day.
Jesus’ answer to the question wasn’t simply “ranking” these two over the others, as if in some kind of league table of importance. He went on to say, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” This is effectively saying that you can group the rest of them—every other divine expectation—under these two; the rest of the 613 are simply examples of what fulfilling those two looks like in various life contexts.
Just to develop that idea a little further, this would mean that not only the Old Testament commandments but also the commandments we see in the New Testament (whatever the subject matter) should similarly “hang on,” or sit under, those two overarching goals. So one helpful test is to ask ourselves how the proposed application of any divine commandment in Scripture (Old or New)— anything that we are minded to cite as “the Bible says”—will advance loving God and loving people (or potentially undermine them).
This does, of course, give rise to the question of what someone means by “love.” I am not trying to be clever here, it’s a genuine question. At one extreme, some Christians will hear the word “love” in a way that is essentially no more than a wishy-washy postmodernish “God’s OK with everything” kind of sentimentality, in which God is perceived to be like everyone’s favourite Granddad. At the other extreme, some will define God’s love as including so many other necessary elements—such as his wrath toward sin and his demands for righteousness and holiness—that for all practical purposes, the plain and obvious meaning of love has been eviscerated, certainly insofar as it manifests in grace, mercy, and forgiveness. They will say that it is inappropriate to speak of God’s love in isolation from his justice. This is not wrong, but that then begs another question: what we mean by “God’s justice.” So, we might all readily agree that God is love, but what we think Scripture means by that—more precisely, what God has in mind by that—may still vary quite widely. Even with something so apparently simple as “God is love,” there is no such thing as uninterpreted Scripture!
Notwithstanding what I’ve been saying about the eternal nature and character of God (the reason that the Great Commandment is timeless), the context in which Jesus was asked (and answered) the question was in relation to Torah. He answered from commandments within Torah, so to speak. But we know that in the new covenant Jesus transformed Torah in the sense of taking it to a new level centred in himself as the living Word rather than in Torah as the written word. We see this outworking in relation to love when it comes to the second component of the great commandment: “Love your neighbour as yourself” (which is drawn from Leviticus 19:18). In John 13:34, Jesus replaces the expectation in Leviticus 19:18 with a new, upgraded expectation. “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
The difference is this. Previously, “as yourself” qualified that love; it put a brake on the extent to which love went—namely, the point at which love showed to others would be no longer loving ourselves as well. For example, in Luke 3:11, “If you have two coats, give one away,” is clearly loving your neighbour as yourself (one coat each). But a John 13:34 kind of love would say that if Jesus had just one coat and his brother was in need, he would still give that away. Jesus loved people beyond “as himself.” His love was generous, sacrificial, and costly.
Before the coming of Jesus, commanding a “John 13:34 kind of love” wasn’t an option. But with the coming of Jesus, love for others was taken to a new level. Being the image of God was taken to a new level, modelled for us in the person of Jesus.