13:34-35 How are Christians to love one another?

Christians are to love one another with the same love wherewith Christ loved us. That means that our love for each other has to be unconditional and self-sacrificial, not self-seeking (CP V1-17).

It is only our love for each other manifested like this that assures us of our place in God's eternal kingdom (CP 1Jn 3:14-24). Notwithstanding that we may profess to love God, we are only deluding ourselves thinking that we are saved if we do nothing unconditionally and self-sacrificially for our brothers and sisters in Christ (CP Jas 2:14-26). It is only our unconditional self sacrificial love that gives of itself for the happiness and well-being of our fellow-Christians that proves our love for God, perfects His love in us, and assures us of our place in His eternal kingdom (CP 1Jn 4:7-21).

Here John traces the love Christians should manifest for each other to its source in the nature of God, as revealed in Him giving His son up to death to provide salvation for His enemies, again stressing Christians' love for each other as the test of the Christian life. Christians are to show they are God's children by manifesting attitudes and actions like God's toward other Christians. It is only by the expression of our love for each other like this that God's love is perfected in us. The effectiveness of God's love in us demonstrates itself in our love for each other.

This is the perfect love that casts out fear in V18, which is the same thing we learned in 1Jn 3:14 - Christians in whom God's love is perfected through their unconditional, self-sacrificial love for other Christians need have any fear of not being saved. They can confidently look forward to Jesus' return, knowing that they have ensured their destiny in eternity with Him. They have proved their love for God by their love for each other (CP Ro 12:9-10; 1Pe 1:22).

In Ro 12:9-10 Paul stresses that Christians' love for each other has to be sincere, unfeigned, without pretence or hypocrisy. It must be a sincere expression of the esteem in which we hold each other. In 1Pe 1:22 Peter commands us to "love one another with a pure heart fervently". Fervently means stretched out, intensely, without ceasing, continually. The idea is that of a love that is extended to its fullest capacity to reach the one loved (CP Eph 4:1-3).

Paul is exhorting Christians here to practice what they preach, which is essentially what "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" means. The Christian life we live should always conform to the profession of Christianity we make. Lowliness is humility. It means a total absence of arrogance, conceit and haughtiness, a sense of moral insignificance, and a humble attitude for the concern of others (CP Col 3:12-14).

Christians are to adopt and practice diligently every form of relational righteousness; love, compassion, humble attitudes, self-giving behaviour, freely flowing forgiveness, and patience toward our brothers and sisters in Christ (CP 1Cor 13:1-7). This is the kind of love Christians should have for each other - that which seeks the welfare of all, and works no ill to any (CP Pr 10:12; 1Pe 4:8). Love covers a multitude of sins.

This does not mean that the love we display toward others will cause God to pass up or pardon their sins, but that, in the context of these two scriptures, when Christians truly love one another, one will not make public the sins of the other, but will keep them to himself - love is blind to the faults of others. The Christian life throughout is to be motivated by divine love - the love that God is Himself. This love is produced in the hearts of Christians by the Holy Spirit as they are yielded to His sanctifying grace (CP Ro 5:5).

Most Christians love each other with a mutual friendly love because they find pleasure in each other's fellowship, but God calls us to increase that love to an unconditional, self-sacrificial love - the same love wherewith He loves us - which is the only love that will ensure our place with Him in eternity (CP 1Th 3:12-13; 4:9-10; 2Pe 1:5-8).

It should be noted here that of the seven churches Jesus had John write to in Rev 2 and 3, He only promised to save one - the church in Philadelphia - from the "hour of temptation" - the Great Tribulation (CP Rev 3:7-13).

The church in Philadelphia was the only one of the seven churches who remained faithful to God's word and did not surrender to their circumstances. Philadelphia means love of the brethren, and what Jesus is teaching here is that it will only be those Christians who belong to the church in Philadelphia who will be saved from the Great Tribulation (CP V10).

The church in Philadelphia was the only one that did all that Christ charged the New Testament church to do. They obeyed His commandments, and loved one another with a pure heart fervently. See also comments on Ro 13:8; 1Cor 12:31; Ga 5:1-8, 5:13; 1Th 3:12; 1Jn 2:7, 3:15, 3:16-18, 3:19-22, 4:7-21; Rev 3:7-13, and author's study How Christians are to love one another in his book Foundational Truths of the Christian Faith.

13:36-38 See comments on Lu 22:31-34

John:-