John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you; That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also one another.”
This is one of those verses with which I am very familiar. So familiar in fact, that I thought it was pretty self-explanatory and wouldn’t require much depth of study. (I can almost hear God chuckling at my naivety!)
First of all, I realized that this is a commandment of Jesus. It is not a suggestion; it is a mandate from the Son of God, and He is giving it to me. Secondly, there is the commandment itself. I am to love others, but not just to simply love them. I am to love them as Jesus loved me. How did He love me? The typical response is that Jesus loved me enough to die for me on the cross, which is true, but I needed to take a moment to really think about what that meant. When I really thought about the scope of His love for me, I was overwhelmed by the enormity of it.
Philippians 2:5-6 states “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Because Jesus loved us all, He voluntarily left His position as God. He left the splendor of heaven (which I really cannot comprehend), but I know it is pure, holy, without pain or suffering, glorious… all those wonderful things that Scripture talks about, but there is no real way for me to grasp what He left… and He did it out of love. He separated Himself physically from God the Father. It had never been done before in all eternity until now… and Jesus did it out of love. Read more