Service and Betrayal

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Service and Betrayal

John 13:34-35

34 A new [kainos] commandment [entole] I give [didomi] unto you [humin] , That [hina] ye love [agapao] one another [allelon] ; as [kathos] I have loved [agapao] you [humas] , that [hina] ye [humeis] also [kai] love [agapao] one another [allelon] .
35 By [en] this [touto] shall [ginosko] all [pas] men know [ginosko] that [hoti] ye are [este] my [emos] disciples [mathetes] , if [ean] ye have [echo] love [agape] one to another [en] [allelon] . KJV-Interlinear

34 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 'By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.' NASB

The word for 'new' here means to refresh, to renew the thinking of those things we have known but have let slip out of our minds. To renew.

Recall our study in Matt. 22:37-40, where Jesus gave the two greatest commandments namely to love God and to love ones neighbor. The details of those commandments are found in Deu. 6, Deu. 11, and Num. 15. These begin with the phrase spoken by the Israelites everyday since Moses wrote the words, 'Hear O Israel ...'

They have heard the words. They have recited them everyday of their lives, but they did not comprehend their meaning.

Now Jesus expands on something old, 1 Jn. 2:7, in order to remind them and to renew in their minds the basis or foundation for their life here on earth. And that foundation is doctrine first, with an attitude of love to be used as a guide.

We have already studied the three words used for love in the Bible. This word, 'agape' in its various forms, is the word for the principle of love, or the policy. It stands for tolerance of others in general. This world is full of people and with as many different ideas about life as there are people. Not everyone will think alike, as that is the nature of the jungle environment apart from Bible doctrine.

The jungle is one of the descriptive terms we have used to describe life in this world outside of fellowship, or a life with little regard of God. The jungle is darkness, no light, no point of origin with which one can guide himself. The jungle is dog eat dog, everyone for themselves, the strong crushing the weak. It is full of intolerance, bias, prejudice, jealousy, arrogance to be sure and every sin and act of human righteousness imaginable.

Without Bile doctrine to influence society, then there would be no foundation for moral standards, and then chaos and tyranny would rule and ultimately destroy the world. That will actually 'almost' occur in the Tribulation. As all believers will be removed from earth in the Rapture and thus the restraining agent preserving the world will also be gone. The world will decay rapidly.

So we have a foundation or principle to guide us through life with respect to how we are to interact with people. If there is one thing we cannot get away from in this world, it is from people. They will always be there in some capacity. None of us can get away from people. Though try as you might, or wish as you might, you will always have to deal with people during your life.

So we have a principle of love, or tolerance of others, to help us get through all the insane, annoying, screw ball, and otherwise distracting habits and opinions of other people. There will be those who will be opposed to us no matter what we do in life. There will be those who are indifferent to us. There will be those who will try to destroy us. Remember that of the four great tests of life (your own thoughts, people, systems of bureaucracy, and various personal and natural disasters), people are involved in the first three in some form (your self included).

By this pattern of life which you lead, wherein you are not biased in your attitude toward others, where you are fair in dealing with others, where you are honest, open minded, friendly, non-judgmental, where you avoid gossip and such, where you do not try to superimpose your opinions on others, but allow others the space to hear your thoughts and then make up their own minds, where you are charitable when charity is called for, where you stand by the principles of Gods word without being self righteous nor trying to throw it in peoples faces. Then, and only then, people will see what true Christianity is all about.

They will not be turned off by hypocrisy, or disillusioned by double talk, nor inundated with the man made rituals and regulations imposed on life by society.

You are a light shining on the hill of life. You have three great responsibilities in life. We have studied them before - first to God (listening to His opinion), second to self (growing up spiritually), third to others (through charity and the support of Bible teaching). God provides us all with resources to make a living and to fulfill our responsibilities.

And these two verses sum up our attitude as it should be. There is a life style in which we ought to live by, and that pattern is found in the Bible. It is not a new pattern, but to those who do not live it, it becomes new to them as they learn or relearn the things they should have learned and understood before.