The New Commandment
Bp. H. Goodwin. John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. It was new because He had only then come to explain it; it was new because it could not have been conceived before His life exhibited its meaning; it was new because the love which He showed was something altogether beyond the power of man to have imagined for himself; and as in science we reckon him to be the discoverer of a new law, who rises above the guesses and glimpses of His predecessors, and establishes upon new ground, and in a manner which can never afterwards be questioned, some great principle which had been perhaps partly conceived before, so I think we may say, that the law of brotherly love, as illustrated by the example of the Lord, which stamps the great principle of selfishness as a vile and execrable principle, might be truly described as a new commandment which Christ gave to His disciples. (Bp. H. Goodwin.) Parallel Verses KJV: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. WEB: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another.