A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
We began looking at what Jesus repeated twice the night of the Passover supper when Judas betrayed Jesus and handed Him over, Jesus told you that “these things” He had spoken to you were said by Him so that you could have His joy made full in you.
First, in His teaching on the Vine and the branches, He stated:
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:11.
And second in His prayer to Me that the Holy Spirit has revealed to you:
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. . . I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” John 17:13-14;20.
So the question we are considering is what are “these things” to which He is referring. And I am showing you what they are by bringing before you the things recorded that He said that night leading up to those statements. And that would be chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 of John’s Gospel, supplemented by the things you find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke spoken at that meal the same night. Yesterday we went through the washing of the disciples’ feet and what Jesus is telling you to apply that in your life today, primarily that the words that you speak to others should be cleaning their hearts and minds of all that is binding them in the filth and mire of the worldly. So now we will go forward to the His next words that are for all the generations to the present day. And these were based on what He was starting that night with the inauguration of the new and everlasting covenant sealed by His blood. He was giving His body and blood to form a new body on earth—the Church, which is the Body of Christ continuing His work and greater upon the earth.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35.
A body of many members all under one head, Jesus the Messiah, building itself up in love. Every member counts to all the members. A wonderful family of believers all joined in Me as one was in the making. A sure support where if one member went off the others were there to draw him or her back. Never create divisions in the body, you are to operate as one.
Peter, who was to feed My sheep, the little flock, wrote about the body: Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Peter 1:22-23.
The called-out ones, those consecrated in truth, in the world but not of the world, the Church, a whole new creation. And Jesus spoke more about it that night:
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:16-21.
One with Christ, and in Him one with Me, and in us, one with one another. And the oneness comes from being saved and walking in the truth.
Through My prophet Haggai, I foretold that the latter glory of My house would be greater than the former. It would no longer be a structure of precious stones and gems and a veiled inmost court, but of living members built together as My sanctuary where I dwell within each member.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.
As believers in Jesus you qualify as members of the body and you are you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for My own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are My people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10.
And your head shares His glory with every member so that just as I told Haggai, the future glory of My house far exceeds the former glory. Jesus prayed that for you at the Last Supper as well.
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:22-26.
And that is how you fulfill the New Commandment of loving the brethren in the Body. I have poured My love into your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that is why it is a new Commandment, to ask you to love as I love would have not been possible until I made you a new creation in Christ and took out your stony heart and gave you a living heart and put My Spirit in your heart.
Do not separate yourself from joining together in prayer and fellowship with other members of the Body, believers in the Name of Jesus, who have love in them as I love.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25.
Never divide or tear down other members of the Body. Remember what Jesus told Paul on the Road to Damascus? When you attack and persecute believers you are attacking and persecuting the Head of the Body Himself, Jesus, and that includes believers in Jesus that are not of your denomination. Denominations I do not recognize, to Me there is one body.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6.
I gave special revelation to My apostle Paul about the body of Christ, and he shared with you what My Spirit taught him:
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
I love you. Bear with one another who are in the Body with love. You are one in Christ, when one member is honored, all are honored, so seek to lift one another up so all may be exalted with the Head. There is no room for prejudice in the body. You are all members of the one body. No one hates their own body but nurtures and cares for it.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:27-29.