Jesus Commandment

1171 Words3 Pages

In Chapter 13, Jesus delivers his first commandment. While Moses had delivered commandments in the Old Testament in Exodus 20:1-17, this is the first order to his disciples that he has labeled as a commandment. Jesus says to them “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34 NKJV). Across all translations, the main idea of this line is the same. It is understood that this line was meant to lead the disciples to be kind to one another as Jesus was kind to them. From the Lumina site, it gives other translations of the Greek “ἀγαπάω” as “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly” as well as “to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing.” (Lumina). …show more content…

Therefore, from this commandment, Jesus asks for the disciples to be kind and to welcome others as he was to them.
This lesson, unlike the others, is reflects previous events and actions by Jesus and not the words he spoke. There are four different instances where Jesus acts in the way of his words in line 34. The first is the disabled man in John 5. The man lays among the sick, blind and lame and has been ill for 38 years. Despite this man being ill and unable to walk, Jesus asks him “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6 NKJV). No person has come to this man to come help him to the healing pool, but Jesus comes and heals the man and brings him to his feet by telling him to pick up his mat. Similarly, in Chapter 9, Jesus aids a man who had been born blind. When the disciple asks him who had sinned to make him blind, Jesus responds with “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but what the works of God should be revealed in him” (John 9:2 NKJV). Jesus then continues on to heal the man with spit and clay and gains sight. At the time, it was …show more content…

They still don’t understand what Jesus means when he tells them he is going away. His whole battle speech appears to have been somewhat pointless because none of the disciples have been able to truly do what Jesus has asked. Even after Jesus was resurrected, the disciples were all hiding in a house days after he rose. That doesn’t seem to represent a lack of fear of death, but rather a large amount of fear. This inability to understand what Jesus has been teaching may have some other significance. Rather than the farewell discourse being meant solely for the disciples, it is also meant for us, and is acting a guide to how we should act.

Open Document