John 13:31-38

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 31-38.

1. The departure of Judas, leaving Jesus alone with His faithful disciples, turns His thoughts again to the glory and triumph awaiting Him, comp. John 12:23, but now both to the earthly (John 13:31) and the heavenly glory (John 13:32). A participation in this heavenly glory will be given to His followers also, but it cannot be now. In the intermediate period, while they were to be still on earth and in the midst of the unbelieving world, they would need some new uniting power to take the place, as it were, of His own personal presence. This power was to be in their love to one another. At this moment, and by the giving of the new commandment, Jesus seems, in a certain sense, to have formed the disciples into the Christian Church, as it was to exist on earth after His death.

2. The explanation of the new commandment is to be discovered in connection with this fact. The command consists, it may be said, of two elements love and one another. The newness of it cannot lie in love, for this command had belonged to the earlier teaching of Christ, and even of the Old Testament. It must, therefore, lie in the words one another. But these words, both because of the circumstances in which they were spoken and of the fact that, as related to men in general, they were not new, must have reference to the Christian company. The love enjoined is, accordingly, that which belongs to the membership of this company. Every member is to love every other member because of the common love of Christ to both. The measure of this love is indicated in the words as I have loved you, but this measure cannot be that of the absolute greatness of the love, for the capacities of Christ in this regard are beyond those of the disciples. The love to be exercised, we may also say, cannot be explained as the same in degree in all cases, for Christ did not love all the eleven disciples in equal degree. But He loved according to the possibilities of His nature, as affected by the circumstances of each case, and the disciples are, in like manner, to love one another according to the possibilities of their nature as affected by similar circumstances. This love, which was founded upon the common bond to the common Lord, was to be a power also upon the world, leading the world to know that they were His disciples, and thus turning the thoughts of the world to Him.

3. The conversation respecting Peter's denials is represented here, quite evidently, as having taken place in the supper-room, for we cannot at all suppose that they went out from the room before John 14:31, if, indeed, they did before John 18:1; Luke 22:31 ff. also places the conversation before the departure from the room. On the other hand, Matthew and Mark place it after the departure and when they were on the way to the Mount of Olives. Meyer thinks that the conversation may have been twice repeated, in whole or in part, but such a repetition within the space of two or three hours seems quite improbable. It is more probable that the earlier Gospels have disregarded the exact order of time here.