John 13:34-38 - In denial

13:34,35

“A new command I give to you”. What was new about it? Love was not new, indeed the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love our neighbour. The newness was that they must love as Christ had loved them. We were made in the image of God, we are to reflect His nature. Jesus came to love sacrificially. We are to love like He loved. But the sacrificial aspect is not the only vital feature. Jesus loved by living a life in total obedience to the Father. We too are to have our lives totally directed by the Lord.

This is how the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples, when we love one another as He loved us. And I emphasise again that the two aspects of this are vital, the sacrificial nature, and the obedience to the Father. Too often we just interpret this in a soppy way. Jesus does not fit any of our liberal conceptions of what love means.

13:36-38

These verses are very rich, and beyond just Jesus predicting Peter’s denial of Jesus. Peter wanted to know where Jesus was going. Jesus doesn’t tell him where, but just that at present he cannot follow Him, but will do so later. Why doesn’t He tell him where? Partly because it is more than a place, it is a way of life, a life lived in perfect fellowship with the Father.

Peter thinks he can follow Jesus, thinks he will lay down his life for Jesus. Why cannot he follow Jesus? We all harbour delusions about the level of our commitment. There are two vital things to learn here. One is that in our own strength we cannot follow Jesus. Today we read of IS killing Christians. How would we react if that sort of thing started happening here? Or how would we react if we were in danger of losing our job for teaching Christian truth? We might like to think that we would stand up for Jesus, but we would be foolish to rely on our own strength.

On the other hand we must not despair. For Peter would later lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus can enable us to do the things that we would otherwise find impossible. We need to depend upon the Lord.

But in the immediate future Peter would deny Jesus three times.