More Than a Suggestion – The Presidential Prayer Team

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. – John 13:34

The direction to love one another is not new. God gave it to the children of Israel through Moses in Leviticus 19:17-18. Yet, on the night He knew He was about to be betrayed, Jesus told His disciples He was giving them a new commandment—not just that they love one another, but the way in which they were to do it—“just as I have loved you.” He had been their model while He was with them, and it was the pattern He expected them to follow. In sending them the Holy Spirit, they were imbued with His power by which to love one another.

Tertullian, one of the early church fathers who lived in the Roman province of Carthage during the third century, said the kind of love Christians showed to one another totally baffled non-believers. He wrote, “It is mainly the deeds of love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. ‘See’ they say, ‘how they love one another… How they are ready even to die for one another!’” He said the early church was of “one mind and one soul.” Is this true of you and your fellow believers today? The secular world increasingly criticizes those who claim faith in Christ as extremists, supremacists, intolerant, divisive, and hypocritical, and the lack of love and unity among believers reinforces these claims.

Hymn lyricist Peter Scholtes wrote, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord… And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Pray for restoration to unity in the body of believers and that the Christ-like love of the new commandment would become such a way of life that, like the non-believers of the third century, people, including those in government, would be “baffled,” and long for the same thing in their lives.

Today’s Verse: John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: John 13:21-35

²¹After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” ²²The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. ²³One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, ²⁴so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. ²⁵So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” ²⁶Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” ²⁸Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. ²⁹Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. ³⁰So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”