Whiteboard: Love One Another

So if our scripture reading comes from John 14:15-21 then why does The Whiteboard have a quotation from John 13:35?

One little word: Commandment

In John 14 Jesus says, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." When you lift that line of scripture out of its context then it is easy to miss what exactly Jesus is saying to his Disciples. This is all part of the long goodbye in John, when Jesus knows that the end is near and is preparing his disciples for life without him. He has already washed their feet, he has already shared in his final meal with them in the upper room, and he has even revealed Judas as the one who will betray them and he is about to foretell Peter's three-fold denial. In the midst of this long goodbye in John 13 Jesus says, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Did you catch the word? Right there in the middle of the first sentence, "commandment."

Jesus is giving his disciples his parting words before his betrayal and crucifixion, and what does he say? "Love one another as I have loved you." Then he hammers the point home one more time by turning the equation on its head. First he says unto them "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another," then he follows up (this week's scripture reading, John 14:15-21) by saying "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Which means: If we love Jesus, then we must love one another just as Jesus loves us!

And that is why I have a quotation from John 13:35 on The Whiteboard when our scripture reading this week comes from John 14:15-21.

-------

John 14:15-21 The Promise of the Holy Spirit

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 

‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’