The Agape (Love) Imperative

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12)."

Please meditate upon the power and compelling content of these words by the Iesous.  They were given to his disciples in the upper room on the eve of his passion.  Notice the succinct structure of the grammar and syntax. The simplicity of this statement is both poignant and instructive.

He is intimately and perfectly conscious of the unspeakable events that are to come upon him.  No one comforts him as the dark chronology of future events invade his impeccable soul.  However, the darkness will not overtake and ruin him (John 1:5).

'This is' represents the present indicative in the Gk. Text. It is the word 'eimi' and stands as a signpost of the intrinsic will of the Iesous much like the 10 commandments given at the Sinai event that represented legal policy or apodictic law that is beyond appeal.

Commandment or 'entole' is a word that stresses the inherent authority of the speaking subject which is represented here by the Iesous.  He alone is the unimpeachable authority who stipulates this attitudinal mandate for his own.

The commandment to love one another is not left merely within in the milieu of what love for each other could mean as generated by collective hubris (pride).  He categorically transitions them out of that limited and conditional sphere because he was acutely aware of their inherent selfishness.  Had they not at one time argued among themselves as to who was the greatest disciple and worthy prestigious accolades?  They must put away the idols of self-importance.  The Iesuos knew that selfishness colored their their motivation along with the desire for preeminence.

The Iesous healed their understanding of himself and themselves by gifting them with the foundational ethic that would substantively set them apart as a powerfully distinctive community.

They were to be zealots.They were to be zealots not armed with swords and hateful antagonism for Rome.  They were to be zealots armed with the agape imperative of the Iesous.

'Love one another as I have loved you.'  'As' is an adverb and it means to the same amount or degree; equally...'  The Iesous is being both descriptive and prescriptive of the nature and type of love that must heal their myopic self-awareness and fill them with a new sense of self as irrevocably joined to Him.

Conjoined to Him they would turn their backs on empty selfish ambition and tawdry one-up-man-ship. They would experience the type of love that consumed the Iesous with the compelling intentional desire to do the will of the Father.

Love as I have loved you is not a religious command.  It is the redemptive act that does not require the addition of anything else.  If God is calling you to demonstrate his love to others today do not resist his will for your life.

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