A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Ver. 34. A new commandment, &c.] New, ratione claritatis et facilatis; for now there is abundance of spirit given by Christ, who writes this affection in our hearts, as of old the law was written in stone. Besides that, he is become a new pattern and example of the rule; and so it is become a new commandment, not in respect of the matter of the duty, but of the form of observing it. For the old rule was, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." But now that form ("as I have loved you") hath something in it that is more expressed; and, for the incomparable sufficiency of the precedent, is matchless, and more full of incitation to fire affection; there being far more incentives and motives to love, since Christ came and gave himself for us. And this is appointed here, for the disciples' and our solace in the want of Christ's bodily presence, as loving fellow members to strive by all means to delight in the loving society one of another.