An Old Commandment Understood In a New Way

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34

I was pondering over these verses and it wasn't until today that Jesus' words "New Commandment" created a problem for me. Loving one another is not a new commandment!!

We don't have to go back very far to find it; only two thousand years earlier we find the command "You Shall Love thy Neighbor as yourself". Lev 19:18. (see right there it is )
I was stumped until I read the next verse. Perhaps it is a "New Commandment" in the sense that what is new is we are now to stand out as Jesus' Disciples by the way we love one another. I could be wrong here, but what made the Jews stand out was in their practicing Jewish Festivals and sacrifices and they inherited the "Land". So what now characterizes the Christian as a, real disciple of Jesus, is not in how he practices his religion or what country he is affiliated with, but by how much he loves his brother(s). Possible?

That being said, I wonder if a problem we have with loving our brother is not that he commits evil acts. We all agree with these in the sense that we've either committed the same evil act or at least thought about it. I wonder is it for the good deeds that our brother commits that we tear him apart (metaphorically speaking). While considering that, ponder the reason behind the Death of Abel (Gen 4). Cain hated and killed his brother because of the good that he did and not due to some evil act.

"Fellowship is the sharing of the divine life and communion of the father and the Son"
R.W. Orr

Well said Mr. Orr. In my own words I would add ; Discipleship is modeling the divine life by sincerely loving the Father, the Son, and one another.

Passion Reborn?

When I consider how my life is spent
The most that I can do will be to prove 'Tis by his side, each day, I seek to move.
To higher, nobler things my mind is bent
Thus giving my strength, which God has lent, I strive some needy souls' unrest to soothe
Lest they the path of righteousness shall lose.
Through fault of mine, my Maker to present.
If I should fail to show them of their need
How could I hope to meet him, face to face, Or give a just account of all my ways
In thought of mind, in word, and in each deed
My life must prove the power of His Grace By every action through my living days
----Nelle Reagan (God and Ronald Reagan pg 48)

Nelle most likely re-wrote this from John Milton's poem as it seems to have a similar beginning.

She went on to say:
"You can be too big for God to use, but you cannot be too small"

Ronald Reagan's mother had a passion for God and "she planted that faith very deeply in me (her son)"

I too want my children to be passionate about the "things of God". This is a challenge for me today. Especially when my own relationship with God, at times, seems to have all the passion of yesterdays oatmeal. I would love to demonstrate to my children how not to be afraid to offend when standing firm against everything worldly, and to never cease from hungering and thirsting for righteousness. How can we hunger and thirst if we have ceased from these pursuits altogether?

We castrate the gelding and bid him be fruitful
--CS Lewis