The New Commandment is Christ’s instruction for Christians to love one another. The term “new commandment” appears four times in the New Testament, all in the writings of John (John 13:34; 1 John 2:7, 8; 2 John 1:5). Jesus first gave this command to his disciples on the night he was arrested: “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another” (John 13:34). This command appears in other places in the Bible (John 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11–12), but it is not called “new” in those passages.
Love as a Commandment
Jesus had already told his disciples to love their enemies (Matthew 5:43–45) and to love their neighbors as themselves (Luke 10:25–37). The “new commandment” focused on Christians loving each other. It did not replace the other two love commands. Jesus intended this command to create a strong and convincing testimony for those outside the church. It would show that:
His followers loved one another in a Christlike way.
True community can be found “in Christ.”
What Jesus said about himself and his mission was true (John 13:35; 17:21–23).
Jesus used the same word for “commandment” that described the Old Testament law, giving his new commandment the same authority. The Old Testament law also included commands to love (Leviticus 19:18, 34; Deuteronomy 10:19). The apostle Paul referred to love as the “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2), and James called the love command the “royal law” (James 2:8) and “the perfect law of liberty” (1:25; 2:12).
The word “commandment” had another meaning as well. Many Jews in Jesus’s time wrongly thought that obeying commandments would make them worthy of God’s blessing (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:2). However, Jesus made it clear that love follows from God's blessing. It is not a requirement to earn it. For Jesus, the commandment showed how the blessed should behave. Disciples were commanded to love in the same way that branches are “commanded” to bear fruit: by staying connected to the vine (Jesus), Christians can love (John 15:4).
What Made It New?
The new commandment gets its special character from the “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25), which Jesus established at the Last Supper. Under the new covenant, God “writes” his law on believers’ hearts (Hebrews 10:16). This means he actively works in them through the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27; 2 Corinthians 3:3), giving them a new desire to obey him (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:16). The new commandment to love is the main part of the new covenant (Romans 13:8, 10; Galatians 5:14). Obedience is therefore a gift, because “love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God” (1 John 4:7). Love is the result of faith (1 John 3:23) and is part of the gospel itself (1 John 3:11).
The close connection between the new covenant and the new commandment might explain why the command to love was called “new.” Christ’s coming was the beginning of a new age. John wrote, "The darkness is fading and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). As Jesus prepared to return to heaven (John 13:33–35), he gave a single commandment. It was to guide his disciples until the Judgment Day (John 5:28–29; 1 John 4:17). Obeying the new commandment would mark them as Jesus’s disciples during his absence (John 13:35; 17:21–23). The command was new because it had a special purpose in this new era.
What made the era new was that Jesus Christ’s coming revealed God the Father in a way that had never been seen before (John 1:18; 10:30; 17:6–8). No prophet had ever been able to say, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Therefore, Jesus’s command that his disciples love each other “as I have loved you” (John 13:34) was new and shocking by any human standard. No one had ever loved perfectly as Jesus did (John 13:1). Following his example of love was a new commandment. The greatness of Jesus’s love led him to “lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Similarly, John concluded that “we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). Love means never closing one's heart to a needy Christian (1 John 3:17). Instead, it means gladly sacrificing one's own good for another's benefit.