EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 13:31. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus saith, etc.—“Ye are not all clean,” Jesus had said; but now the traitor had gone, and a higher spiritual teaching was given to the eleven. Now the hour of His crowning glory as the Son of man, the glory of uttermost humiliation for the sake of man, has come; and in that the Father’s love and mercy are also displayed.
John 13:32. If God be glorified in Him.—Omitted in א, B, C, D, etc.
John 13:33. Little children.—τεκνία, a word peculiar to John’s writings. It “emphasises the idea of kinsmanship; and the diminutive conveys an expression at once of deep affection and also of solicitude for those who are yet immature” (Westcott).
John 13:34-35. A new commandment, etc.—The disciples could not follow the Saviour then; but they would do so afterward, during their earthly service, on the ways of this new commandment of self-sacrificing love in imitation of Him. In the Spirit of love would be their eternal union with the Father in Christ (John 17:23).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 13:31-35
The glorified Son of man and the new commandment.—When Judas had departed from the upper chamber, and his dark presence, with something of a depressing or numbing influence, was no longer felt, then the Saviour prepared His true disciples, faithful though weak and imperfect, for what lay before them, which would prove to them so full of horror, so subversive of hope. He sought to strengthen them to meet the events about to follow, showing that all had been foreseen and provided for. “Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He” (John 13:19).
I. The glorified Son of man must depart.—
1. After the traitor had gone forth determined on his awful purpose, events would move with startling rapidity. Now the glorification of Jesus, as the Son of man, is viewed as begun.
2. For what was that glory? The very depth of His voluntary humiliation was being reached. How could there be glory in that? But that was indeed the very period of His greatest glory as Emmanuel. For “with His stripes we are healed.” His sufferings and death were man’s redemption. In all, His love to man was unmistakably manifested—even mercy and love to His enemies. His obedience as the divine Son was shown before all worlds. His unswerving trust in the love of the Father, and His deep, unshaken peace shone forth in those hours of trial and pain with transcendent glory. And this glory of self-sacrificing love had just been seen shining conspicuously in that humility with which He had washed even the feet of Judas, and in seeing the traitor depart unhindered on his awful errand.
3. In all this God was glorified in Jesus. The glory of the divine character is conspicuous in this wonderful exhibition of redeeming love, in which a way was shown by which “He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). It was God who “so loved the world,” etc. (John 3:16). His love is wonderful; His righteousness and truth are manifest to all in this amazing work of redemption. “Behold what manner of love,” etc. (1 John 3:1). Thus in the Son’s carrying out of the divine plan, in the exercise of “a love which many waters could not quench,” the Son and Father were together glorified: “grace and truth” were made manifest, and the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God conspicuously declared (Romans 11:35).
4. “And if God be glorified in Him, God shall also,” etc. Not only does Christ’s redeeming work redound to the glory of the Father, but the Father also would glorify Christ, in raising Him from the dead, and setting Him on His throne in the heavens, in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost in accordance with Christ’s promise, and in putting “all things under His feet.” Christ must go, and it is true must go by a via dolorosa whither the disciples then could not follow Him—a way of sorrow and suffering, which is yet the way of abounding glory.
II. The disciples must remain.—
1. The hour was approaching when the little flock must be scattered, though only for a season. But they must needs be prepared. They had dreamed, and were still dreaming, some of them, of material thrones and kingdoms. The rude awakening must be anticipated.
2. In Christ’s absence they would seek Him. Ah! how earnestly, as we see by their timid gathering together (John 20:19); by the return homeward of at least two sad at heart and bankrupt in hope (Luke 24:14; Luke 24:17); and by the eager rush to the sepulchre on the resurrection morning.
3. “Whither I go ye cannot come,” etc. (John 13:33). They could not, must not, follow Him then by the way of sorrow to glory; for the work’s sake they must remain. As He said to the Jews: “Ye shall seek Me,” etc. But He did not say what He further said to the Jews: “Ye shall not find Me.” For not only is it ever blessedly true that those who truly seek shall surely find Him; ere long they would in reality see Him again (John 14:19; John 16:16), not only in His glorified resurrection body, and in the fulfilment of His promise at Pentecost, but when they should be called into His presence, and when He appeared in His glory. At the longest, measured in the æons of eternity, this shall be “but a little while.” “I go, but ye shall remain to carry out and complete My work, to show forth My truth, to walk in the light of My example as obedient children of the heavenly Father, with the hope of blessed reunion in the Father’s house.” To unite and quicken them for their work—
III. Jesus gave a uniting and inspiring principle of life and action to the disciples in the new commandment, in the observance of which they might follow Him.
1. The path He had at that time to tread He must truly tread alone (Isaiah 63:3). This way of glory should yet be trodden by the disciples; but it would be on the path of obedience to this new commandment.
2. Christ was to be withdrawn in visible presence; but He would still be with them in spirit, and they would be united to Him, their living Head, by the very closest bonds, through the spirit of mutual love. “That love which you see in Me to youward, and which you bear to Me, let it be expanded toward one another, so that it may become a bond of union and communion, uniting you to one another as members of My body” (Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 5:25; Ephesians 5:29-30).
3. Christ calls this commandment a new commandment. Similar command, it is true, had been given of old in the Mosaic institutions. But it had not the same vital force, because it was restricted in scope and motive. Thus we are prepared to find that it had become almost a dead letter. The Rabbis had tortured it to mean, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.” The love Christ commands has a wider sweep; it embraces all men. He pointed the Jew to the hated Samaritan even as his neighbour whom he should love (Luke 10:36).
4. But here it is the love of His people to one another of which Christ speaks, not so much the love of the disciples for perishing men as their mutual love. The natural man loves those bound to him by ties of affection and kinship, from motives of esteem, etc. Christians love the brotherhood for Christ’s sake. They love Him, and must love those whom He loves, who are children of the heavenly Father, temples of the Holy Ghost. A new motive for this mutual love has been given.
5. The object of love is indeed the same. It is men, mortal and imperfect, but men viewed in a different relationship. They are members of the great spiritual family, “brethren and sisters in Christ.” Men love the members of their families naturally more than strangers. Much more should members of the great spiritual family, fellow-citizens of the saints, etc., show to each other a deep, abiding affection. A relationship that is for eternity binds them together. Such a love cannot be narrow or confined. It will flow beyond the bounds of mutual affection and pour itself forth to all men, like Christ’s love for a perishing world, for which He died.
6. The spirit and example of this love are new. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” was the old form. But no such wavering, imperfect reflection of love as this is given in the new commandment. “As I have loved you.” Here is the new and glorious prototype. Think of His love “unspeakable,” its patience, tenderness, forbearance, strength, etc. It is an example which will suffice for eternity.
IV. The observance of the new commandment is an evidence of discipleship.—
1. “By this shall men know,” etc. It is a test by which disciples may try their lives. “We know,” etc. (1 John 2:3; 1 John 3:14).
2. It is the badge of Christian citizenship. Men are proud to wear the badges and insignia of famous orders, societies, etc., to which they may belong. The loyal soldier is not ashamed of his uniform, etc. Religious orders have their special garb, etc. But the true mark of Christian discipleship is mutual love. The world soon realised that here was a new power.
3. It is a sign of Christian brotherhood. Just as the members of some societies recognise each other by a sign or word, etc., so members of the society of believers recognise each other, or should do so, by this mark of mutual love.
4. It should also be an earnest of mutual helpfulness. Genuine Christian affection will lead to prompt, brotherly helpfulness; and thus more clearly still will be evidenced true discipleship (1 John 3:17).
Lessons.—
1. Pure love on earth is ever new. Its songs never grow old or cloy from age to age. It is a living fountain from which streams, ever fresh, flow out to bless men. It is so because it manifests the same unselfish, self-sacrificing spirit as that of this heavenly commandment.
2. So this mutual love of Christ’s disciples should be a never-failing spring of blessing for men. Yet just as human love is marred by human imperfection, so is this.
3. Still what infinite possibilities lie in this command, nothing less than making earth an outer court of heaven, and the kingdoms of the world the kingdoms of our Lord, etc.
4. How far are Christians from its perfect observance! The divisions, jealousies, sectarian rivalries, of Christendom ought to humble us. How can Christian men, who in everything else are so near each other, stand opposed behind some trumpery ecclesiastical or other barrier? The members of all the Churches need to drink more deeply the spirit of these blessed words, to pray that they may learn to love one another as Christ has loved them.
John 13:34. The new commandment.—This new commandment serves—
I. To prove our love to God.—
1. To show that He is Lord of our hearts (1 John 4:7-8).
2. If we discover by this test that our heart is loveless toward our brother, then we learn that it is because in our heart there is no real love to God, and that we have not understood what His love is.
II. It also leads to the exercise of love to God.—
1. God is invisible to us, but has given a visible object of love in our brother, so that we may prove through him what love to God really means (1 John 4:20).
2. Thus we are able through the exercise of love toward the brother whom we see to advance in the divine love (1 John 4:12).
3. This seems like a perversion of the order of salvation, according to which love to God must precede love of the brethren. Yet it is not. It is only the simple way of education. Men who are religious only in the natural sense recognise the force of the command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour,” etc. Let them exercise this love genuinely; and when they find how unable they are to do it fully, may they not learn to begin, as all love to God begins, to love wistfully, conscious of their failure, and looking in longing to Him who through grace brings righteousness to the transgressor? And if a child of grace desires to be perfected in the divine love, let him just try whether Christ’s promise will not hold good, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love.”
III. This commandment is given for our temporal and eternal blessedness.—
1. This is not merely a commandment with a promise of reward attached thereto, but it is in itself a reward of highest blessedness—to love and be loved, loving fellowship with God, and loving fellowship in God.
2. When we learn really to love as brethren, then we shall find our happiness and prosperity in the happiness and prosperity of our brethren. In loving them each of us loves a consecrated ego.
3. Then this true wisdom is learned—to consecrate all the powers and intelligence, which were formerly devoted to selfish ends, to the good of our fellows, and in them of that higher and divinely consecrated ego. This is what our Redeemer taught; in Him we see how men should love one another. We should—this is His new commandment—“love one another as He has loved us.” And how did He love us? He sought His glory in our salvation. So has this Friend loved us; His blood was shed forth for us! And therefore should we learn of Him to love our brethren, and thus love and seek truly our own selves and our highest happiness.
4. All love of the brethren displays itself in this: it does not wrong them—it ever seeks their good. And this it does in the way of the commandments of the second table of the law. “Love worketh no ill,” etc., but ever shows itself in acts of kindness to the brethren done by us, and in guarding ourselves from doing them wrong—
(1) In their life—the sixth commandment;
(2) In their other selves—the seventh commandment;
(3) In their possessions—the eighth commandment;
(4) In their good name—the ninth commandment; and
(5) From the inner depths of our being—the tenth commandment.
From Th. Wunderling (Moravian).
John 13:34-35. The ruling spirit of Christian citizenship.—Citizens keep the laws of their country from various motives. The majority, and the best part of the people, keep those laws because they see that they are conducive to the country’s social and material welfare, and thus to their own. Others, however, who do not feel bound by any moral or social restraint, who consider first and foremost only their own fancied interests and pleasures, would often transgress their country’s laws, were it not that the fear of punishment restrained them. And some, disregarding this, with hope that they may escape the penalty, break those laws perpetually. Self-interest, it may be said, rules in the kingdoms of the world. It is far otherwise in the kingdom of Christ. In it there is a constraining and ruling spirit which inspires its government, and is the motive power in the lives of its citizens, leading them to honour and obey its King.
I. Christ rules in love.—
1. Love is the eternal law and spirit of His kingdom. All its manifestations are founded on love. Love to the world underlies the sending of the Son; love to men brought the Son, who “loved us and gave Himself for us,” down to earth.
2. God indeed loves His people with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). So, too, His people are in Christ under the reign of love: nothing can separate them from it. Every day confirms it, every blessing proclaims it. Our whole life is encompassed by it.
3. See how His love forbears with us; how patiently He deals with us; how faithfully He chastens; how constantly He helps in every time of need; and thus how gloriously His high-priestly prayer hath been answered: “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them; and I in them” (John 17:26).
II. Love to Christ leads to loving obedience of Him.—
1. “He that hath My commandments,” etc. (John 14:21), said our Lord. And the apostle echoes his Master’s words when he writes, “This is the love of God,” etc. (1 John 5:3). “Without love obedience is impossible” (John 14:24); “for love is the outcome of the renewed nature which comes through faith in Christ.”
2. Love reigning within shows a heart and will in unison with Christ. The same mind that was in Him dwells in those who love Him. Thus obedience becomes spontaneous and joyful. The nearer men rise toward Christ’s likeness, the more His love is shed abroad in their hearts, the more will they be led to pray, and seek to do His will in all things.
“Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.”
3. Who indeed is more worthy of our supreme love and unwavering obedience? The more we know of Him—His wisdom, love, power—the more we experience His gracious dealings, the more we realise the sweetness of His yoke which is so easy and His burden which is so light, the more shall we be grieved when we neglect His commands and fall into sin. And when we realise all the misery and slavery of sin, and the freedom and peace of His kingdom, we shall be led ever to cry, more and more, “Give me Thy easy yoke to bear.”
III. The test of love and obedience to our spiritual King is love to the brethren and to those for whom Christ died.—
1. “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another,” etc. (John 13:34), was one of the parting exhortations of our Lord to His disciples. And is it not neglect of this command that has hindered and is hindering the advance of Christ’s kingdom?
2. To what grace are Christians more earnestly urged in the New Testament than this? and yet what grace is frequently more conspicuously absent? Would there be the wranglings, jealousies, divisions, that now exist in Christ’s Church, His spiritual kingdom on earth, even among good men, over “trifles light as air,” were the love of Christ perfected in us?
3. Would we see so many Christians grasping, worldly, bent on the pleasures and pursuits of time, almost to the exclusion of everything else, did more of the spirit and love of Christ animate them? To how many does the love of Christ mean no more than a languid attendance at a Sabbath service, followed by a constant devotion all the week to the world, the flesh, or the devil—or all three?
4. Love prompted the Redeemer to leave the heavenly glory, to live among men, despised and rejected, to die upon the cross, that He might bring salvation within reach of all. And He has confided to His people the glorious work of making that salvation known to perishing men. And, lo! those who call themselves His people sit at ease in Zion for the most part, and never dream of sacrificing a farthing’s worth of comfort for that great cause for which Christ died. He shed His blood—gave His life. They give, often with grudging hand, what can well be spared, and cast away on trifles or doubtful pleasures what might go to swell many a living rill for refreshing the spiritually thirsty and weary tribes of earth. Is this love? Is this obeying the command, “As I have loved you … love one another”?
5. Back to the Christ of the Gospels, is a modern cry. But the Christ of the Gospels is the Christ of the New Testament—of Paul and John as well as of Matthew and Luke. And the reigning feature of His kingdom all through is this of love. Yes, back to Christ—back from ecclesiastical wranglings, from theological strifes, from hazy secularistic and socialistic dreamings—back to learn of Him, to be inspired by His Spirit, to be filled with His love; and then a willing and obedient people shall show forth His praise, and seek to extend His blessed kingdom of truth and love.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 13:34. “A new commandment,” etc.—This solemn testament our Lord left in His parting words for all who should be His disciples. But is this commandment of love in reality a new commandment? Is it not a very ancient command, as old as the world? Had not the fratricide Cain to bear about this commandment, written as if with blazing letters on his despairing heart, as he went about restless and a fugitive on the earth after his bloody crime? Did not the patriarch Abraham already understand this commandment, and practise it, as he spoke to his cousin Lot with such noble brotherliness, “If thou wilt go to the left, I will go to the right; or if thou wilt go to the right, I will go to the left,” and as he prayed to the Lord in such heartfelt pity for lost Sodom? Do not the ten commandments which Israel received at Sinai come to this sum of the whole, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God above all, and thy neighbour as thyself”? Do we not see in a David an example of love to friend and foe, when we view his friendship with Jonathan and his nobleness toward his deadly foe Saul? Have not even the heathen understood and practised this commandment? What a beautiful example of the love of a child was that of the Athenian hero Cimon for his imprisoned father! What a touching example of the love of friends do Damon and Pythias give us, whose faithfulness endured even at the scaffold, and which Schiller has sung in his poem The Surety-ship! What a noble pattern of human love did the Roman Emperor Titus give, who held that every day in his life was lost in which he had done good to no one! What glorious deeds of the love of fatherland are related to us of a Leonidas, a Regulus, and so many other Greek and Roman heroes, who freely gave up their lives for the common weal! And yet the Founder of our faith calls it a new commandment, that His disciples should love one another. And truly it was a new commandment in His mouth; it has received an entirely new signification in His kingdom. Now for the first time this commandment of love has been placed on its true eternal basis, when we learn from the New Testament of Jesus Christ that God is love. Now for the first time has it reached its highest degree, since there is given us a type of the purest and greatest love in Him who loved us unto death, and who says to us, “A new commandment.… As I have loved you.” Now it is referred to the whole wide field of its influence, since we have learned that all men are our brethren, and none need now ask, “Who is my neighbour?” And now first could this command be received in its real power through the Spirit of Christ, which is a Spirit of humility and meekness, of love and peace. Now first has this commandment been accorded its rightful position as the sum of all the others—the royal commandment of love. In short, beloved, through Christ this command of love has first become truly difficult, and through Him also it has first become easy. Therefore did He rightly say. “A new commandment,” etc. And say, is it not in truth to us also ever new? Ah, how many who call themselves Christians understand this commandment so little that one might think they had never heard of it, as if it were entirely new to them! And even among those of us who understand and observe it, need we not to have it ever anew held up before us, lest our love should grow cold? Need we not every day again to learn, again to practise it, and cannot perfectly fulfil? but we dare never neglect it, because in this command all Christian duties are included, because love is the fulfilling of the law. Says Luther: “The commandment of love is a short command and a long command: a single commandment, and yet many commandments; no commandment, and yet all commandments: it annuls all the commandments, and yet it establishes them all.”—Translated from Karl Gerok.
John 13:34. Ministering love the highest service.—Behold, then, from the first beginning, from the first turning of the heart to the Redeemer, until the joyful departure from this world, nothing avails but this communicating and ministering love in its winning and self-sacrificing nature! This it is with which the Redeemer embraces the world—this in which we should love one another. If any man should say aught else concerning the Christian Church, believe it not! Does any one say that there are human laws which belong to it, then answer that the Son of God is come to free us from the bondage of merely human ordinances, so that we might receive the gift of adoption. Does any one say a confession belongs to it, this or that custom, then reply, the Redeemer said, “I give you a commandment, that ye should love one another with that love wherewith I have loved you.” And if it is answered that in this fashion the Christian Church would be something which could not be laid hold of, which can be kept to nothing, so that one would not know where she is, where she began, where she will end—then say: Thus is every one that is born of the Spirit; ye know not whence He comes and whither He goes; ye hear His breathing. Well for you when you understand this; well for you when your own life is encompassed by this breathing of the Spirit; well for you when also through you the words of eternal life become spirit and life for the race of men.—Translated from, F. Schleiermacher.