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. -John 13:34-35 NRSV
Ever wonder why Jesus called this a new commandment? Surely Mosaic Law commanded them to love each other as they loved themselves. And perhaps many of them loved in this way? So how was the love that Christ commanded different? Was it just a matter of love being sacrificial and unconditional? Could not Mosaic love be that kind of love?
For sure the love of Christ that his disciples saw, and would see, embraced sacrifice and was without conditions. Yet I wonder if loving like Jesus is not about those things but about selfless love? What if humility was at the core of our loving? What if we all loved and did not care about who knew it? That would be different. That might change the world.
Help me Lord to love in such a way that my ego is not stroked. Teach me to love in a selfless way.
... this devotion is part of an ongoing series on the Gospel of John.
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