John 13:34-35 English Standard Version
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus is speaking to the twelve. What did love look like to those twelve men? How did Jesus show them love? If they were to love one another in the same way, then their perception of His love is important in how they loved one another.
Two things are related in this commandment. One is understanding His love on a personal level. The second is a willingness to obey the command. If these passages are to hold any sway over us, then we might consider our understanding of His love for us and our willingness to obey.
How does Jesus Christ show His love to us in our personal relationship with Him?
He died for the forgiveness of our sins. Now imagine standing in a crowd of tens of millions of people, far back from the foot of the cross. Does that make us feel personally connected to His death? Do we mourn His death as His mother does? We cannot even see her at the foot of the cross. We didn’t know Him at that point in time. Can we say that we understand that act on a personal level?
All that He did in His ministry was witnessed by those twelve men. They were there. Jesus rose the dead, heal the blind, cure the lepers, in their presence but did they feel loved by Him just because they were present in that moment?
Reading His Word tells us of His love for the weak, the troubled, the helpless, and the hopeless. Does reading His Word make us feel loved personally?
We have to let Him into our hearts before we can know His love. Everything else is just a history lesson.