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 to 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 

 

 This week we are reading through what is known as Christ's Farewell Discourse given at the Last Supper.  Yesterday we read that Jesus said to His disciples, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

 

  "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."  This is the second time that Jesus has iterated this "new commandment" for His disciples (see John 13:34).  My study Bible comments that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another.  What makes this commandment new is the measure required of our love:  we are told to love as Christ has loved us.  In the following verses He explains what this depth of love means, that He will lay down His life for His friends.  Moreover, at the Cross He will lay down His life even for His enemies.  

 

"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 to 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."  My study Bible comments that friendship is higher than servanthood.  It says that servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty; friends obey out of love and an internal desire to do what is good and right.  Abraham was called a "friend of God" (James 2:23) because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart.  The disciples, and truly all the saints, are honored as friends of Christ because they freely obey His commandments out of love.  Those who have this spirit of loving obedience, my study Bible adds, are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father (Matthew 16:17).

 

 "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.'"  My study Bible explains here that the term world is used in several distinct ways in Scripture.  In some cases, it refers to everything that is glorious, beautiful, and redeemable in God's creation (John 3:16).  Other times, it's a reference to that which is finite in contrast to that which is eternal (John 11:9; 18:36).  Yet other times, as here, this term indicates everything that is in rebellion against God (see also John 8:23).  Additionally, my study Bible comments that the rebellion of the world against God reveals several things.  First, while union with Christ brings love, truth, and peace, it also brings persecution -- because the world hates love and truth (see also John 16:33).  Secondly, the world hated Christ.  So therefore, it will hate all those who try to be Christ-like (verse 20).  Moreover, the world hates Christ because it neither knows nor desires to know the Father, as Jesus indicates here (verses 21-24).  Hatred for Jesus Christ is irrational and unreasonable, for Christ brings love and mercy.  Therefore, Christ is hated without a cause (verse 25).

 

 "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."   My study Bible comments that with respect to God's working salvation in the world, the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father alone.  In other words, the Holy Spirit receives His eternal existence only from the Father.  In conformity with Christ's words, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed confesses belief "in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."  While the Son is begotten of the Father alone, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone; in other words, the source or Fountainhead of both Persons is the Father. 

 

 St. John's Gospel is often called the Gospel of Love.  This passage is one of those that make it clear why it is called this way.  Many commentaries reflect that while the Synoptic Gospels teach us about the manner in which the Eucharist was instituted, St. John's Gospel gives us the reasons and meaning behind it.  Moreover, according to Biblical Studies professor Dr. Eugenia Constantinou, there is further good reason to understand St. John's Gospel in this way, as it also testifies to the particularly close relationship he had with Jesus.  He is referred to as the "Beloved Disciple" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20); Christ even commits the care of His Mother, the Theotokos, to the care of St. John when He was dying on the Cross.  St. John then took her into his own home (John 19:27).  This dimension of their deep friendship -- while Christ loved all of His disciples -- perhaps put St. John in the most advantageous position to teach us about Christ's love, and the deep nature of the love of God.  So important is our understanding of this reality of the nature of God and of our faith that St. Paul himself has written one of the greatest testimonies to it that we have.  This is found in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.  So essential is love to our faith that, according to St. Paul, it surpasses all other gifts.  Indeed, he claims that having any other spiritual gift, but without love, renders that gift nothing.  Even among the greatest virtues of our faith, the greatest is love:  "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).  All of these things confirm Christ's words as found here in St. John's Gospel.  He will indeed go on to lay down His life for His friends, even for His enemies, as my study Bible tells us, and for all who have been and were to come, for the whole of the Creation.  Christ's words in today's reading confirm for us this basis of love for all of us who would be faithful to Him, for all of the communion -- from Father to Son and Holy Spirit, and in turn to us and to all of Creation -- is based in love.  Like St. Paul, we can say, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).  Let us also consider that when we go to our churches, when we profess to be Christian, without love we have no real basis in our faith.  Additionally, Jesus also promises us tribulation in the world, but it is His love that guides us through the evils we may encounter and endure, just as He did.  He invites us into that spiritual battle, and our part in it is His love, and His life teaches us that truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment

 

 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.  Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."

 

- Matthew 5:21-26 

 

In Saturday reading, Jesus taught,  "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

 

  "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council.  But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire." According to my study Bible, this repeated formula but I say to you is a statement of total, divine authority (Matthew 7:29).  As He is the Creator of human beings, and the Author of the Law, Christ speaks with this authority.  While there is anger which is not sinful, my study Bible comments (Psalm 4:4; Mark 3:5) here Christ forbid sinful anger, and identifies it with murder.  The council was the supreme legal body among the Jews.  Hell (in Greek γέεννα/gehenna) is the final condition of sinners who resist God's grace.  Raca is identified as an Aramaic word essentially meaning "empty" but giving the connotation of lacking intelligence, and being therefore worthless.  It was an insult in Christ's time.  The term for fool in Greek is μωρός/moros.  This word has evolved to be used in modern Greek as a term meaning "baby," but likely comes from a usage here indicating dullness or stupidity, underdevelopment.  It's the root of the English word "moron." 

 

"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."  My study Bible notes here that peace with other believers is a requirement for worship (Mark 11:25).  The liturgical "kiss of peace" at the beginning of the eucharistic prayer is a sign of reconciliation and forgiveness, preparing the faithful to offer the holy gifts at the altar (1 Corinthians 16:20; 1 Peter 5:14).  

 

"Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."  My study Bible says that St. Luke places this teaching in the context of the end of the age (Luke 12:57-59); here it is in the context of the Liturgy.  It says that delay in reconciliation allows for the spread of animosity and other evils (Ephesians 4:26-27).  

 

 Anger can do many damaging things to our lives.  In this context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the examples of dismissing a person with insults; perhaps we should see the difference between the two that He lists here as one that is an actionable public insult which can be brought to the Council, but the other is a total dismissal of a person as a human being, even as a soul.  If we keep in mind that Jesus is speaking to disciples, then in the context of the body of the faithful, this name-calling terms another person's faith as worthless.  In that light we consider His teachings on receiving children in the Church, or His constant reiteration of the need for care of "the least of these" in His Church as care for those who are liable to receiving such treatment, including the simple and humble.  See Matthew 18:1-9 for His warning to the disciples about abuses in the Church.  I recently had an encounter with anger that led to murder in which a wife is now accused of murdering her ex-husband, after fighting a custody battle in which she wished to deny him access to his children, which she'd previously agreed to.  This angry and vindictive battle escalated over many things and culminated in his murder by conspiracy.  It was these teachings of Christ which first came to my mind as I heard the facts of that development among a couple I had once known fairly well; there are now two ten year old children without a father, and a mother who is in prison.  Where those children will go is still in question.  Nothing has suggested to me more Jesus' warning here about reconciliation, especially this teaching:  "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.  Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny."  Of course, Jesus is speaking metaphorically of prison, and is referring to the judgment of God.  My study Bible points out that there is such a thing as righteous anger, which Jesus sometimes embodies in His compassion for those who suffer.  Perhaps what this indicates to us is our deep need for discernment at all times, a discipline that comes from love of God, and practicing what Christ teaches.  In another commentary on this passage, St. Augustine cites a passage from the Epistle of St. James.  St. James writes, "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.  But no man can tame the tongue" (James 3:7-8).  He comments if no human being can tame the tongue, we must take refuge in God, who will tame it, for just as no animal can tame itself, so human beings also need God to tame the tongue.  So, therefore, we take refuge in God.  In this way, he points once again to the deep theme contained in the Sermon on the Mount, and that is the foundation of the love of God, which is the beginning of righteousness.  God extends love to us, and we return that love.  In a deep communion with Christ who is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, we find our righteousness.   In Christ, then, and the work of the Holy Spirit, we find the capacity to "tame the tongue," to develop discernment, and to temper our anger.  While the Law could condemn, it is Christ who saves.  Let us pay attention to what He tells us.