As I Have Loved You

GETTING STARTED

I’ve been told you should listen to the words of a man who is about to die. His words will clarify for you what is most important to him. Shortly before Jesus was to go to the cross, he had one last meal with his disciples. Today we get to see a small part of his conversation with them where he spells out for them what he wants them to do after he is gone.

  • If you knew you were going to die, what would you want those closest to you to know? What would you want people to do because they had known you? 

READ THE WORD: JOHN 13:31-35 (ESV) 

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little 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.’ 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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. What did Jesus tell his disciples to do (vs. 34)?
  2. How had Jesus loved them? What are some examples of how he loved them?
  3. How is the commandment in verse 34 different from the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself”?
  4. How does loving one another bring glory to the Father?
  5. Who in your life right now needs to be shown the love of Jesus? What is one way you can do that today?

RESPOND TO GOD

The kind of love Jesus was talking about wasn’t a feeling. It was love that finds its proof in action. Here was the man who had taught them, served them, washed their feet, and was about to die for them

(and for us). That’s the kind of love we are to have for each other in the body of Christ: a self-sacrificing, generous, God’s-glory-focused love. Jesus gave everything for his disciples, and he commands us to do the same.

  • Jesus, I pray that by your power and for your glory, I would be willing to love unconditionally, serve others generously, and extend grace to those who offend me today.