Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, April 17: John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Many call this day "Maundy Thursday". Maundy means "commandment" (where we get "mandate"), and the New Commandment Jesus gave His disciples was to love one another as He had loved them. It would be good to read John 13-17 this day, and reflect on the final words of Christ, from the time Judas left to betray Him, to what we call His High Priestly Prayer in John 17.

This command has passed down to us, as John wrote in the brief letter we call 2 John: "And now I ask you dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another." (v 5)

This love is inextricably linked to the work of Christ coming in the flesh. John also writes: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but hat he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:7-12)

At the very root of true, Godly love is Christ. We cannot even begin to love as God loves without falling upon God the Son as our Savior. And from that point we just begin to learn of true, Heavenly love. This love should be the foremost feature in our lives. The love for one another is an outgrowth of the love of God for us.

John is very blunt in saying, "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." His love supersedes every other aspect of a Christian life. Do you want to know how to gauge your Christian walk? How do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ?

After reading the "Maundy Thursday" passages in John, it might be good as well to read 1 Corinthians 13, which shows Love as a jewel among all sorts of other facets: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. Love never ends." (vv4-8a)

It is the sign of true Christian maturity. All of the works on which we put such importance fade in the face of the Love of God. All of His works point to that eternal Love. We'll close this morning with the final words in 1 Corinthians 13: "When I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then shall I know fully even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:


A NEW COMMANDMENT