John 13:34 · NASB · 1 of 6
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Word study · Greek
ἐντολή
commandment · entolē · a charge, an order given with authority
Not a suggestion from a sage. Entolē is a command with a commander. What is new is not that love is required — it is the measure: as I have loved you.
Insight
Spoken in an upper room after He has washed their feet, hours from the cross. The newness is the pattern. Love is no longer ‘as you love yourself’ only. It is ‘as I have loved you’ — a love that stoops, a love that will bleed. The church’s first public mark, in the next verse, is not its argument. It is this resemblance.