John 13:31-35 Glory/Love
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The root of the Greek word for glory is doxa which is an opinion, an estimation, a valuation. The greater and higher the value the greater the glory. The glory of God is the goodness of God and we see his goodness displayed most clearly at the cross.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness (not valued) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God(highly valued).
Jesus was on his way to the cross where the disciples could not follow because he was going to do what they could not. Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” NLT. The Pharisees and disciples alike were utterly helpless against sin and death. Where Jesus went no one else could go.
Jesus told us what we could not do but now he turns to what we can and must do.
Why does Jesus say this is a new command? I think that just as Jesus elevated the ten commandments from external behavior to internal motivation (Matthew 5) so here he elevates the idea of love from refraining from harm to active demonstration of valuing one another highly.
1 John 4:7-12, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
The world says things like, ‘as long as you don’t harm others, do what you want’. The demonstration of power under control given by Christ in washing the disciples feet is a light so bright that these worldly notions seem pale and sickly. The Power that cancelled sin and death indwells us and finds its expression in giving glory/ thinking highly of/ demonstrating love one to another in Christ.
brotherpayne 