Why should Jesus have called his commandment of love a new commandment? There was an old commandment that ran, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Some people suppose that this is the same as the commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples. But there are two differences. The old commandment referred to your neighbour, — that is, to everybody; the new refers to your brother, your fellow-Christian. The other difference is in the measure of the love, — “as thyself”; “as I have loved you.”
The world never knew what love meant until Jesus came and lived among men. “As thyself” leaves self and others side by side; “as I have loved you” carries us away beyond that, for Jesus made sacrifice of himself in loving his disciples.
And so this touches our lives at very practical points. “Love suffereth long, and is kind.” The trouble with too many of us is that our kindness is spasmodic, is shown only when we feel like it, and is checked continually by things that happen. But nothing ever stopped the flow of Christ’s kindness; nothing ever should check the flow of a Christian’s.
Page 1