John 13:34

A new commandment I give— Our Lord calls this a new commandment, not because mutual love had never been enjoined on mankind before, but because it was a precept of peculiar excellence: for the word new, in the Hebrew language, denotes excellence and truth. See Psalms 33:3.Mark 1:27. Revelation 2:17. And the reason of the idiom seems to have been, that novelty often has the same effect upon the mind with excellence, rendering an object acceptable, and raising admiration. That the term new does not always relate to time, is evident from the use of it in Xenophon, who calls the laws of Lycurgus καινοτατοι νομοι, very new laws, several hundred years after they were made; because, though they had been commended by other nations, they had not been practised by them. Our Lord calls this a new commandment also, because they were to exercise it under a new relation, according to a new measure, and from new motives. They were to love one another in the relation of his disciples, and with that measure and degree of love which he had shewn to them. See 1 John 3:16. Withal, they were to love from the great motive of his love to them, and in order to prove themselves his genuine disciples by the warmth of their mutual affection. Some have thought that this expression—a new commandment—signifies no more than merely a renewed commandment: but it certainly contains a strong and lively intimation, that the engagementstomutuallove,peculiartotheChristiandispensation,areso singular and so cogent, that all other men, when compared with its members, may seem uninstructed in the school of friendship; and Jesus may appear, as it were, the first professor of that divine science. Dr. Clarke well observes, that our Lord seems to have laid this peculiar stress upon philanthropy, as if it was the principal part and great design of religion, and, as if he had a particular view to that general corruption and destruction of true Christianity, which the want of it would cause among those who should call themselves his church. Perhaps our Lord may here insinuate a reflection, not only on the party-spirit which then prevailed so much among the Jews, but likewise on the emulations and contentions among the apostles themselves, which mutual love would easily have cured. In this sense, it is unhappily still a new commandment to too many of us, who generally act as if they had not yet time to learn, or even to read it.