This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."

- John 15:12-27

We continue with the Eastertide readings in John's Gospel. Jesus is giving His farewell discourse to the Apostles at the Last Supper, teaching them all the things they will need to know and remember after His Passion and Crucifixion.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." This is a repetition of what Jesus has already told them at the beginning of this discourse, just after telling them that one of them would betray Him (see John 13:34-35). We must assume that it is a repetition for emphasis. But there is also more; He will explain further His love.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." He is the One who calls us His friends, and He explains to them why and how they are His friends. He leaves with them His new commandment, and He has taught of the Comforter, He has taught that He will manifest Himself to them, but not to the world. He has said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me." He has shared all with them, He will lay His life down for them. My study bible says, "Friendship is higher than servanthood. A servant obeys his master out of fear; a friend is a servant who obeys out of love."

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." He is entrusting them with His mission for them, as friends. He is investing Himself fully in them, so that the fruit they bear will not be passing but eternal. Beyond all this, He promises that whatever they ask the Father in His name should be given. But all of it is tied up in this friendship that obeys His commandments, a friendship of love -- and bound in the command that they love one another. It is, in effect, a Commission of love. I think that if we do not understand love, then we will never understand Christ. Perhaps to come to know Christ is also to learn love.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." Here is the great contrast, between the ways of the world and the ways of Christ's love. He has set them apart, taken them out of the world, as holiness is something different from "the world" and the ways of the world. As Christians, as those who seek to know and to do His love, we can expect persecution from that which does not understand this Way.

"Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me." Here is a paradox: the world doesn't know its Creator. A "worldly" way of thinking is outside of the connection to this love, to this Way. He promises, in this sense, persecution. A servant is not greater his master. He has led the way so that we may understand, and follow Him. The world will not understand this Way of love, because it does not know the Father who sent Him.

"If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'" Here is another powerful teaching: because He has revealed the Father among them, their sin remains. There is no ignorance here, but true rejection. A gift has been offered, revealed, made manifest. To reject this gift, this grace, is to bear responsibility for that rejection.

"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." And here is the great promise again, of the Helper, the Paraclete, in the Greek. John calls Him the Spirit of truth. He is also called Comforter, Advocate, Counselor. Parakletos, in the Greek, is one who comes close when you call, an advocate or advisor -- one who helps with discernment, especially of a legal understanding. Mingled with Christ's love, we must come to understand His justice and truth; all are inseparable. Jesus has promised that He wills that their fruit should remain; the Advocate or Paraclete is tied in to that which remains -- to testimony that is true and will stand the test of justice, that will remain standing. The truth to which which they will testify will remain -- and will be helped through the work of the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete.

Jesus' promises here are directly made to His Apostles: "You have been with me from the beginning." But they are also made implicitly for us, to us. We have the Helper, who will help us to discernment, to truth (as the Spirit of truth). And the implication is also that the Helper will guide us into His love and the fulfillment of His commandments. Over and over again in this farewell discourse, Jesus repeats for emphasis what are His commandments, and what is His new commandment that He leaves with us: that we love one another. As He has loved us, so we must love one another. How often do we live up to that? How often do we fail? If there is anything more to understand in this commandment, it is that love and truth and judgment are all wrapped up in one another. In God's love and God's law and God's truth they are inseparable. We will show that we are His by the love we show to one another. How powerful is that?