The Third Great Commandment – “Love One Another as I have Loved You”
Did you know there is a third great commandment? On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment, saying “A new commandment I give you, love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Christ’s new command can be considered a third “great commandment” because it is like the two greatest commandments to “love God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor.” This Bible study will examine the new (third) great commandment Jesus gave during “the last supper” as recorded in John 13:34-35; 15:12-13; 17.
John 13:34-35 Bible Study
During the last supper, Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to “love one another”, as recorded by the apostle John. This section will explain the meaning of this third great commandment through a Bible study of John 13:34-35.
The Context of the New Commandment
Jesus gave His followers the new commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” during ‘the last supper,’ the night before His crucifixion. The apostle John devoted 5-chapters of his gospel sharing Christ’s last words to His disciples that night. John 13-17 record the most important things Jesus wanted His followers to know and do.
Jesus knew His departure was at hand, and “having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:1 / KJV). So, Jesus got up and washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:4-11)
This menial task was usually performed by slaves, but the Son of God washed their feet as an example to them (John 13:12-17). If He, their lord and master, would humbly wash their feet, then they should sacrifice their pride and wash each other’s feet as well.
Jesus then announced that He was going to be betrayed by one of His disciples in the room with them. After His betrayer (Judas) left, Jesus continued His discourse. Jesus told them that He was about to be glorified and leave them (John 13:31-33) and they could not come with Him. Then Jesus said:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 / NKJV)
First, Jesus gave His disciples an example to follow by humbly washing their feet. Then, He commanded them to love one another as He had loved them. The next day, Jesus laid down His life for them, dying a torturous death on the cross to pay for their sins.
John 13:34-35 Word Study
This section will define some key words Jesus used in giving His new commandment. The English word found in our translations will be given, followed by the Greek Word John wrote. Then the definition of the Greek word will be given.
New – καινός – new, fresh, unused, previously unknown, in contrast to something old.
Commandment – ἐντολή – commandment, order, mandate, ordinance. This is the same Greek word as used in Mt 22:36-40; Mk 12:28-31: and Lk 10:25-28, referring to “the two Great Commandments.”
Love – ἀγαπάω – This is God-like love based on choice, not feeling. This love is sacrificial and unconditional. This is the “agape” love God has for the world that motivated Him to give His only Son, that those who believe may not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). This is the form of love described by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor 13:4-7. This love is patient, kind, humble and generous; not proud, selfish, irritable, or self-seeking.
One another – ἀλλήλων – each other, one another. This is a reciprocal pronoun, indicating reciprocation between people or groups. The word is used here to refer to fellow believers in Jesus Christ.
As – καθώς – as, just as, to the same degree. This is an adverb, making a comparison and expressing the extent or degree of something. Christians are to love each other the same way Jesus loved us.
Phrases in John 13:34
“A new commandment” – His disciples had heard Jesus explain the two greatest commandments given in the Old Testament law. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus now gives His disciples a third great commandment, a new, previously unknown command that was not given to the children of Israel.
“I am giving to you” – “I” refers to Jesus. “Give” is a present tense verb, best translated as “I am giving.” This was not a repeat of something Jesus had already told His followers. Jesus was giving His disciples a brand-new commandment, which they had never heard before. “To you” is 2nd person plural in the dative case. It refers to Christ’s disciples present with Him at the last supper the night before His crucifixion. Jesus gave this new commandment to His followers the night before He died.
The Old Testament law, including the two greatest commandments, was given by Moses to the children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt, before they entered the Promised Land. Jesus gave His disciples this new / third great commandment which never applied to Israel. While Jesus gave this new command to His followers present with Him that night, it applies to all true Christians (all born again believers in Jesus Christ) just as the Old Testament laws Moses gave applied to all future generations of the children of Israel.
“That you may love one another” – “That” is a discourse marker, indicating what Jesus said next, was the new commandment He was giving to His disciples. It is interesting to note that while Jesus said He was giving His disciples a new command, He stated it using the Subjunctive mood, implying possibility and desirability rather than a direct Imperative command. It is God’s will and desire that His children would love each other, but they may not always behave that way.
“As I loved you” – In keeping with the second greatest commandment, Christ’s disciples already knew that they were to love each other as they loved themselves; that command applies to loving everyone (Lev 19:18; Mt 22:39; Mk 12:31). Jesus now “raised the bar” in terms of how His followers would one another. Loving your fellow believers as you love yourself is not enough.
We are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way and to the same degree that Jesus loved us. And how did Jesus love us? – Sacrificially. Jesus left the splendor of heaven and equality with God the Father, and became a man with human flesh, to live a humble life and die a terrible death to pay for our sins (Philippians 2:5-8). Jesus took our sin debt upon Himself that our sins could be forgiven, so we could be reconciled with God and go to heaven.
Jesus had told His disciples that He would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:15). Jesus repeated this new command later in His last supper discourse (John 15:12 & 17). In John 15:13, Jesus clearly stated what it meant to love one another as He loved them. ‘Greater love has no one than this, that they might lay down their life for their friends’ (John 15:13).
Loving one another ‘as Christ loved us’ is not free; it involves sacrifice. Loving Christ’s followers as Jesus loved them means sacrificially laying down your life for them. It requires giving something up. “God gave His only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). Jesus gave up His earthly life. What are you willing to give?
John 13:35
Immediately after giving His disciples the new commandment to love one another, Jesus said that their love for one another would demonstrate to everyone that they were in fact Christ’s disciples. So, obeying the 3rd great commandment to love your brothers and sisters in Christ demonstrates the reality of your being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Jesus stated this test as a 3rd class conditional. This means the condition is generally considered true in the present and will be realized in the future. The wording could be arranged as an if/then statement:
“If you have love for one another, then everyone will know you are My disciples.”
“If you have love” is stated in the subjunctive mood, which indicates something potential but unrealized. It is also stated in the present tense, indicating that it is an ongoing present action. The meaning of this condition therefore is, “If you would continually love one another.”
The result of meeting the condition of continually loving one anther is that everyone will know you are Christ’s disciple. “All will know” is stated as a future reality. “All” refers to everyone; all people will be knowing. If you are loving one another, all people (believing Christians and unbelievers alike) will know.
“That you are My disciples” states what everyone will be knowing if you meet the condition. This is stated as a present reality. Everyone will be able to identify that you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, if you continually love fellow believers as Christ loved us.
John 15:12-13; 17 Bible Study
That night, Jesus repeated His new command to His disciples to love one another as He loved them (John 15:12-13; 17). The importance of this new (third) great commandment is highlighted by Christ’s repeating it three times as He gave His disciples His final instructions and teaching the night before His crucifixion.
This repetition of Christ’s new command to “love one another” in John’s gospel, demonstrates that it was not for Christ’s apostles only. It is a 3rd great commandment meant for all followers of Jesus Christ for all time. As Jesus prayed:
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21 / NKJV)
Context of John 15:12-13 & 17
After Jesus gave His disciples the new commandment to love one another, Peter asked Jesus where He was going and why he could not follow Him there. Jesus told Peter He could not follow Him now but would later. Peter asked why he couldn’t follow immediately, adding that he was ready to lay down his life for Christ. Then Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times that very night.
It was not time for Peter, or any of other disciple, to lay down his life for Jesus. Their time would come later. It was time for the Christ to lay down His life as a ransom to pay for the sins of the world, including His disciples.
Jesus proceeded to encourage His disciples, saying, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1 / KJV). He said He was going to prepare a place for them and that He would return. Jesus told them the He is “the way, the truth, and the life;” He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).
Jesus told them that He and the Father are one (John 14 7-11), and that He would do anything they ask in His name (John 14:12-14). He also gave them a test of their love for Him, saying, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15), which would include His new commandment to love one another as He loved them.
Jesus concluded His upper room discourse promising to send the Holy Spirit to them as their helper and comforter. They then left the upper room, so Jesus could do what the Father had commanded Him (John 14:31). Jesus continued instructing His disciples as they walked to Gethsemane, saying:
- I am the true vine (John 15:1)
- You are the branches (John 15:5)
- Abide in Me (John 15:4)
- “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7 / ESV)
- I have loved you, just as the Father loved Me (John 15:9)
- “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.” (John 15:10)
John 15:12-13 Love as Jesus Loved
Jesus told His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). And “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” (John 15:10). Then Christ explicitly repeated His new commandment, saying, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). If we want to abide in Christ’s love, then we must demonstrate our love for Him by keeping His command to love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as He loved us.
Jesus then set the expectation of what it means to love one another as He loved us. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 / NAS95). The very next day, Jesus laid down His life to pay for our sins, to rescue us from hell and provide a means for us to have fellowship with the Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and His other believing children (1 John 1:3).
Loving one another as Christ loved us requires sacrificial love. Jesus laid down His physical life by dying on the cross to give His sheep spiritual life. Dying physically for other believers is rarely necessary. But what would you sacrificially lay down for God’s children? Would you give your time, your money, your pride, your standard of living, your property, your comfort . . .?
John 15:14-17 Friendship with God
Genuine Christians are called to be God’s servants, but more than mere slaves. We are God’s children and citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And we can be God’s friends! (John 14:14-15)
Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, . . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
“You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).
We can be friends of Jesus, the Son of God; what an extraordinary privilege! But our friendship with Christ is conditional; it is contingent on obeying His commands.
“You are My friends” is stated as an ongoing present reality. The condition is stated as a present, active potential. This could be stated as, ‘If you are doing what I command, then you are My friends.”
Jesus had already twice commanded His disciples to “love one another” as He loved them (John 13:34 and John 15:12). Jesus wanted to ensure His disciples got the message, so He then explicitly repeated His desire a third time. ‘These things I am commanding you, so that you may love one another’ (John 15:17).
The Third Great Commandment
When asked what the greatest commandment in the law was, Jesus said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). But Jesus didn’t stop there. He added, “And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). And Christ’s new command, to “love one another as I have loved you,” is like the first and second greatest commandments Jesus spoke of in Matthew 22, which makes it a third great commandment.
The new commandment Jesus gave His disciples the day before He died is similar in format to the two greatest commandments. The first and greatest commandment is to “love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” The second great commandment is “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Christ’s new command (the third great commandment) is to “love one another as I have loved you.”
These three great commandments are all commands to love someone in a specific way. In all three commandments, it is God-like, agope love which is commanded. This form of love is a choice, not based on feeling. The object of that love is God in the first great commandment and your neighbor in the second. In Christ’s new command, the object of your agope love is “one another,” your fellow believers in Jesus Christ.
We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are to love our neighbor “as we love ourselves,” treating them the way we would want to be treated. In the new / third great commandment, we are to love Christ’s other disciples as Jesus loved us (i.e.: by laying down His life for us).
As you can see, the format and message of Christ’s new command to His disciples is like the two greatest commandments from the Old Testament Law given by Moses. But it was given by Jesus as a New Testament command to His followers. This is why I call it “the third great commandment.”
Christ’s New Commandment Summary
This post has unveiled a third “great commandment” by examining and explaining the “new commandment” Jesus gave His disciples three times the night before He was crucified. Christ’s new command was for His disciples to “love one another” as He loved them (John 13:34; 15:12, 17). Christ’s new commandment was not based on Old Testament law; it was based on the love He was going to manifest the next day by laying down His life on a cross as the sacrificial Lamb of God to pay for the sins of the world.
The two great commandments named in Scripture are to ‘love God with all your heart’ and to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ Jesus identified these as the first and second greatest commandments in the law of Moses (Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:28-34; and Lk 10:25-28). While the Bible never refers to the new commandment Jesus gave His disciples as a ‘third great commandment,’ it can be considered one because it is similar in commanding love for others as a top priority for Christians.
This third great commandment differs from the first two in that it was given by Jesus Christ to His disciples, rather than by Moses to the nation of Israel. The 2nd great commandment required the children of Israel to love others as themselves. Christ’s 3rd great commandment raises the bar for His disciples to sacrificially love their fellow believers in Jesus Christ as He loved them (i.e.: by laying down His life for them).
The new command Jesus gave His disciples to “love one another” as He loved them is the third “great commandment” in the Bible. As Christians, we are called to lay down selfishness and pride, and sacrificially give ourselves for the benefit of God’s children. Have you?
If you found this helpful, Please SHARE it!
If you like this, you may also like:
This post explains the meaning of first and greatest commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
This post explains the second great commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself.