During Jesus' ministry on earth, He commanded His followers to love others. His teaching did not end there. You see, Jesus did not just tell His followers to love the people around them; He showed them what it looked like to love by the way He loved. The love He demonstrated was sacrificial, which He ultimately demonstrated through His death on the cross for the sins of the world.
Jesus redefined what it meant to love others in John 13. In this passage of Scripture, He shared a final meal with His disciples. As they were sharing this meal, Jesus told His disciples, "I am giving you a new command: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other" (verse 34). Jesus was redefining what it meant to love each other. The new measurement for how to love was the way Jesus demonstrated love. His love, at its core, was sacrificial. You see, Jesus left heaven and came to earth in order to lay down His life so that He could rescue the world from sin. He held nothing back when it came to loving others. He gave His very life. As He sacrificed His life, He was demonstrating what it looked like to love those around Him. By living a life of sacrifice because of His love, He redefined what it meant to love.
Jesus’ sacrificial love serves as an example for us to follow. Just like His disciples, we, too, are called to show sacrificial love. We are to lay down our own interests and desires for the sake of others. As we love this way, we point people straight to the Savior, who laid His own life down so that they could experience eternal life with Him.
How can you show sacrificial love today? Can you clean the kitchen to give your spouse time to rest? Can you lay aside your agenda to help a friend who is in need? Can you take a meal to someone to show them how much they are loved? Commit today to loving others in the same way that Jesus loved by serving sacrificially.
18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
