Love One Another
30 Days in John - day 14
If ever someone captured the beauty of genuine love, John did so in recounting the Upper Room account of Jesus’ washing the disciples feet. The act itself spoke in two directions at once. First, it pictured the redemptive arc of Jesus’ own life. He had left heaven, laid aside His garments of glory, took on the humble flesh of humanity, and poured out His life to wash away the filth of our sinfulness.
It was also a teaching moment about service and love. The disciples were to do what Jesus did. Not necessarily to repeat the act itself, but to adopt the posture; stooping in costly, loving service toward one another. “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you,” (verse 15).
And within all of this beauty is interspersed examples of human frailty and failure. The disciples as a whole failed before the lesson even began. None of them stood up to stoop down. Only Jesus did. Judas was in the midst of a colossal failure. He was plotting to betray the Lord. Peter, though he protested he wouldn’t fail Jesus, did the opposite.
Against this backdrop of failure and impending betrayal, Jesus speaks words that define His people:
“Love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another,” (verse 34).
And the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” (verse 35).
Throughout chapter 13 Peter stands out as a prime figure. Both in his reaction to Jesus washing his feet and his denial that he would ever deny Jesus, Peter becomes the living illustration of the tension John is exposing. Like many of us, Peter genuinely wants to do the right thing and is so determined that he cannot imagine himself failing.
“I will lay down my life for you,” Peter protested. And isn’t that the kind of love Jesus had just demanded of them in verse 34?” Yet, Jesus knows Peter will fail and fall short.
So, why does Jesus even bring it up and set the standard so high if He knows the disciples will fail so badly?
It seems that Jesus is anticipating what is to come. In this age of grace, we have the Spirit to empower us. John will make this explicit in the coming chapters, when Jesus promises the Helper who will dwell within His people. He lives within us. He gives us a new heart that is capable of this kind of love.
Jesus sets this standard of love for His followers, not because He thinks they can reach it on their own. He doesn’t. But because He knows His Spirit in them can empower them to live in ways they couldn’t on their own.
Scottish preacher Ralph Erskine captured this gospel logic memorably:
A rigid matter was the law,
demanding brick, denying straw,But when with gospel tongue it sings,
it bids me fly and gives me wings