John 13:31-35

So understand this! The love of God is going to involve a cost to the individual who does the act—whatever it might be. We might say, then, that this 'costliness' is its vital, or essential, part. Now, it is not the only one. There is another one that has to be fit into this, if the love of God is going to really be there.

Even as God is manifested by what He does, His children will also be manifested by what they do, because they will be doing acts that are similar. Maybe not in scope, maybe not in size, but in kind—in terms of they will be things that will be done for the benefit of others; acts that will cost them something.

We also find from this series of verses that what the Father did and what the Son did, most specifically, what the Son did here in John 13, is going to be the standard against which all acts of love are to be measured. I am not thinking here of what Jesus specifically did in that period of time right after this episode in John 13 took place—that is, the crucifixion. I am talking about Jesus' entire life being the example, the standard, against which all acts of love are going to be measured.

John 13:34-35

The word know is in the Greek ginōskō. It does not mean to know like, “I know this.” It means to observe over a period of time. People in the church, people in the world, will look at and see there is something different, when they see you deal in the workplace, with the public, with your friends, in a loving fashion like this, having the love of God. They will begin to slowly know, to apprehend, to see love working. They will begin to see your maturity at living rightly, at how you handle situations, and they will say, “There’s something different about this person. He conducts himself wisely. He conducts himself not like the world, but with a tenderness and a concern for everybody he or she comes in contact with.” They will know that you are different, and that you belong to God. All will know that you belong to Him because of your love.

John 13:34-35

I think this may be one of the most powerful statements in the Bible. It says, "By this we will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another." Have you ever wondered if you have God's Spirit? If you are living this way, one way to judge that very quickly: Do you love the brethren? We carry a very unique, divinely-ordained responsibility in the church of God. And these verses stress the importance of loving one another. And our love for one another is the very proof that we are disciples of Christ, the proof that we are being disciples, followers of Christ. And if we do not love one another, dare I say, are we really and truly Christians at all?

John 13:34-35

What we are seeing here is an amplification of what Jesus just said there in John 13, that we have to learn to love our brother and by this we will be known as His disciples. Love is not pleasant thoughts. Love is not sympathetic feelings. Love is not having warm regard for somebody. Those things may all be included within what love is, but love is an outgoing concern for the well-being that motivates a person to do something about it. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." His concern motivated Him to do something. We have it stated that love is keeping the commands of God, keeping being an active verb here.

John 13:34-35

God is showing through the church that all the prejudices against God and man can be dissolved and overcome through Christ. "New" here implies freshness, rather than from point of time. It is part of that different perspective. Love is merely the exercising of God's Word. Doing what He says to do is new for a convert because it means operating from the perspective of cooperation rather than competition.