A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another. — There is no reference in the context to the Ten Commandments, and we are not therefore to seek the meaning of the “new commandment” in any more or less full contrast with them. They also taught that a man should love his neighbour as himself; and the fulfilment of the law is love. The contrast here is between what our Lord had said unto the Jews and what He now says to the disciples. He had said, and says again, “Whither I go ye cannot come.” To the Jews he added, “Ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins” (John 7:34-35). For those who believe in Him, He has no such decree of separation, but a new and different commandment, by which His spiritual presence would be at once realised and proved. Love to one another, and therefore sacrifice of self for another’s good, would be, in the truest sense, a realisation of His presence in their midst. (Comp. Note on 1 John 2:8.)
For the meaning of the word “commandment,” comp. Note on John 10:18.
As I have loved you. — More exactly, Even as I loved you. (Comp. Note on John 13:1.) The punctuation of our version is to be maintained. It is not, as it has sometimes been read, “That ye love one another, as I have loved you...” The earlier clause gives the principle of the new commandment. The latter clause repeats this, and prefaces the repetition by words referring to His own acts of love, which should be an example for them. The word “as,” or “even as,” does not refer to the degree of His love, but to the fact; and the special instance of love then present to the mind was the feet-washing upon which the whole of this discourse has followed.