Take Me Deeper - Feb Wk 3 - Love Your Neighbor

Over at His Kingdom Come, continuing with the theme for February, Love, this week it's "Love your neighbor."

A new command I give you:

Love one another.

As I have loved you, 

so must you love one another.

By this everyone will know

that you are my disciples,

if you love one another.

~ John 13:34-35

What really struck me about this verse is the timing of it. This was at the Last Supper. Jesus was speaking to his disciples – the ones he knew very shortly would betray him, deny him, abandon him. "As I have loved you..."

Judas had left by this time, but he was there earlier when Jesus washed the disciples' feet. Which means Jesus washed Judas' feet as well. The man who he knew would betray him. Whose actions would lead to Jesus being beaten, being humiliated, being crucified. "As I have loved you.."

It's easy to love people in the abstract. It's easy to love those you like and get along with. But those who have hurt you, disagreed with you, teased you - that's a lot harder. Sometimes it's not even that – just the ordinary, the unattractive, the ones easily overlooked. I fail there constantly, yet it's amazing how often God brings the lesson home to me. So many times people I haven't thought much about, or who seem to have nothing in common with me, have been people who have helped me, or given me good advice, or become friends. It's such an amazing blessing.

I read the IVP commentary on this passage at BibleGateway, and it talked about Jesus' washing the disciple's feet. It brings up the point that Jesus was aware of his identity as God, and it was because of his identity as God that he washed their feet. He only does what he sees the Father do. 

"This is what God himself is like – he washes feet, even the feet of the one who will betray him! Thus the foot washing is a true sign... for it's a revelation of God."
             ~IVP Commentary

The serving heart of God. And that's where we go if we want to be like him, to do what we see him do. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another."