My Notes
What Does John 15:12 Mean?
Jesus gives his disciples a command that he calls new: love one another as I have loved you. The standard is not general love or cultural love. It is the specific, sacrificial, unconditional love that Jesus has demonstrated.
"As I have loved you" is the measuring stick. How has Jesus loved them? He washed their feet. He served them. He taught them patiently. He is about to die for them. That is the standard.
The word "commandment" makes this non-optional. Love is not a suggestion or a good idea. It is a command — something you choose to do regardless of whether you feel like it.
Jesus calls this a "new" commandment even though love of neighbor existed in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18). What is new is the standard: as I have loved you. The old commandment was love your neighbor as yourself. The new commandment is love as Jesus loved — which goes far beyond self-interest.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What does it look like to love 'as Jesus loved you' in a specific relationship?
- 2.How is this 'new commandment' different from the Old Testament command to love your neighbor?
- 3.Who is hardest for you to love right now — and what would Jesus-like love look like toward them?
- 4.If love is a commandment, how do you obey it when you do not feel loving?
Devotional
Love one another, as I have loved you. Not as the world loves — conditionally, reciprocally, with strings attached. As I have loved you — sacrificially, persistently, without requiring you to earn it.
Jesus said this on the night of his betrayal. Within hours, one of the men in the room would hand him over. Another would deny knowing him. All of them would scatter. And still he said: love one another as I have loved you.
The standard is impossibly high. But that is the point. This kind of love is not natural. It is supernatural — it requires a source beyond yourself. You cannot love like Jesus loved by trying harder. You can only do it by being connected to the one who loved you first.
This is my commandment. Not my suggestion. Not my ideal. My commandment. Love is an act of obedience, not just an emotion. And the obedience is to love specifically the way Jesus modeled — with sacrifice, service, and refusal to give up on people who keep failing.
Who is hardest for you to love right now? That is where this commandment lives.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Greater love hath no man than this,.... By these words our Lord shows, how far love to another should extend, even to…
This is my commandment - The special law of Christianity, called hence “the new commandment.” See the notes at Joh…
That ye love one another - See on Joh 13:34 (note). So deeply was thus commandment engraved on the heart of this…
Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love.
I. Concerning the Father's love to…
The Union of the Disciples with one another in Christ
12. This is my commandment Literally, This is the commandment that…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture