ἀλλήλους

αὕτη έστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ έμή, ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:12

haute estin he entole he eme, hina agapate allelous kathos egapesa hymas. — kata Ioannen 15:12

My commandment is this: that you should be loving one another just as I loved you. — John 15:12, translation mine

Up to this point in the discourse on the vine and the branches, Jesus has spoken of remaining in His and the Father's love, reiterating His reminder (Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27a) to His disciples of the first Great Commandment: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV). Now Jesus admonishes the apostles and us, who are completed in His joy and love, to pour this same love out to our neighbor, as it is written, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18b, ESV). This does not mean that we are to apply the self-serving narcissism that disguises itself as love to our neighbor. Such alleged love could only make idols of those around us. Rather, we should share the love which Christ has shown us as the only Son of “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3b-1:4, ESV).

This love which Christ has shown us and commanded us to live by does not consider the self first but others before self. We need only look to Christ's sacrifice to see that He loved us enough to become sin itself and die so that we might be saved from our sin and deemed righteous before the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot repeat the inimitable and perfect sacrifice of Christ, who “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26b, ESV), but the apostle Paul reminds us of the quality of love which completes lover and beloved in joy, writing, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3, ESV).

A man must be grounded in God's love in order to love his neighbor properly. Godly humility, one should note, is not an exercise in sanctimony and self-flagellation. Such paltry gestures maintain their focus on the self. If we denigrate ourselves to avoid giving honor to another, we violate the second Great Commandment. Rather than seeking places of honor, we should offer them as we are given the opportunity, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11, ESV).

As followers of Christ, we should “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11b, ESV) in light of the great mercy God has shown us. When Christ spoke the commandment to love one another as He loved us at His last supper with His disciples, He had not yet died. Though the hour of His death had not come at that moment, Christ had already been pouring out His life for His followers in His words and His works over His entire ministry. It is recorded that during the supper, Christ stripped down and washed the feet of His disciples (John 13:1-11), and “when He had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you’” (John 13:12-15, ESV).

If Christ, in His position of authority, could humble Himself to serve in such a way out of His love for us, surely we, who can only boast in Him as our salvation, should do likewise. As Christ lived for us, we must live for Him. As Christ died for us, we must die to ourselves that we might reach out in Christ's name to those around us. All followers of Christ are called, as Paul admonishes, “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1b, ESV). As a sacrifice is by definition that which imparts holiness and as Christ is the righteousness in him who believes, let we who are in Christ live in such a way that our lives are completely poured out in holy love of God and holy love of neighbor, in both life and death.