Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to John · About this commentary
A New Commandment
John 13:31-38
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. · WEB
The door closes behind Judas and the first thing he says is that he has been glorified.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him" John 13:31.
The timing is exact. The betrayal is in motion, the machinery cannot be stopped, and the first word out of his mouth is glorified — in the past tense, five times in two verses.
In this book the glorifying is the cross John 12:23, so the moment the arrest becomes certain is the moment the thing is spoken of as accomplished.
"Little children, I will be with you a little while longer" John 13:33.
The address is used once in this Gospel and it is the tenderest thing he calls them. And what follows is the sentence he had spoken to his opponents in the temple — where I am going, you can't come John 7:34 — now said to his friends, which is a much harder thing to hear.
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another" John 13:34.
The question is what is new about it. Loving your neighbor as yourself was in the law Leviticus 19:18, and he had named it as the second great commandment.
The newness is in the measure. As I have loved you replaces as yourself, and the standard has just been demonstrated with a basin and is about to be demonstrated with nails. Self-love was the old benchmark and it is a real one; this one has no ceiling.
And the scope has narrowed before it widens. One another is about the group — which sounds smaller than loving a neighbor until you consider that the group in that room included men who had been arguing about rank, a man who would deny him within hours, and until a minute ago a thief.
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" John 13:35.
The identifying mark is given, and it is not doctrine, worship, morality or success. It is how they treat each other, and the people doing the recognizing are everyone — outsiders, watching.
Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" John 13:36.
The new commandment lands and Peter is still on the previous subject. It is very like him, and the account records it without comment.
"Where I am going, you can't follow now, but you will follow afterwards." Both halves are true and the second is a promise about his death — which the last chapter of the book will make explicit John 21:18–19.
"Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you" John 13:37.
He uses the shepherd's own phrase John 10:11 and means every word of it. The sincerity is not in question; the self-knowledge is.
"Will you lay down your life for me? Most certainly I tell you, the rooster won't crow until you have denied me three times" John 13:38.
The question repeats his words back to him, and then the prediction is specific enough to remove any chance of the outcome being read as bad luck.
And the next sentence in the book — with no break at all — is don't let your heart be troubled John 14:1. The comfort of chapter fourteen is addressed first of all to a man who has just been told he will fail.
settled What this mark means