Short answer: Jesus commands his disciples to love one another, and gives a new standard for it: as I have loved you. The command to love was not new — Leviticus had required it centuries earlier. What is new is the measure. The love of Christ, about to be demonstrated at the cross, becomes the pattern and the power for how his people treat each other.
The World English Bible renders it: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another." The King James Version reads: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."
The context: after the basin, after Judas
Two things have just happened, and both press on this verse.
First, Jesus has washed his disciples' feet — a task so degrading that Peter protested (John 13:6–8). He then told them he had given them an example to follow (John 13:15). The disciples have just watched their Lord do a slave's work on their filthy feet.
Second, Judas has gone out into the night to betray him (John 13:30). John notes the darkness. Only after the betrayer leaves does Jesus turn to the eleven and speak of glory, of his imminent departure, and then of this commandment.
So the new commandment is issued in a room where love has just been demonstrated in the humblest possible way, and where it has just been refused in the most terrible possible way. Both are in the air.
What it means, phrase by phrase
"A new commandment" — this is the puzzle. Leviticus 19:18 already said to love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus himself named it the second greatest commandment. So in what sense is this new?
Several answers have been offered, and they are complementary rather than competing. The standard is new: not "as yourself" but "as I have loved you," a measure no one had until Jesus supplied it. The covenant is new: Jesus is instituting a new covenant that very night, and every covenant carries its terms. And there is a sense in which the command is renewed rather than invented — John himself writes later that he is giving no new commandment but an old one, and then turns and calls it new after all (1 John 2:7–8).
"that you love one another" — the scope here is the community of disciples. Jesus commands love of enemies elsewhere (Matthew 5:44), and that command stands. But this one addresses how Christians treat each other, and the next verse explains why: by this everyone will know they are his disciples (John 13:35). The church's internal love is meant to be visible evidence to outsiders.
"Just as I have loved you" — the standard, and it has just been enacted with a towel and a basin. Within hours it will be enacted again with nails. This is love that stoops, serves, and dies — including for the man who was in the room, ate the bread, and left to sell him.
"you also love one another" — command, not suggestion. Yet it comes to people who have just received the very love they are told to imitate. The order is not incidental. Love is commanded of those who have first been loved.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 19:18 — love your neighbor as yourself, the old commandment.
- John 13:1–17 — the foot washing, and the example given.
- John 13:35 — by this everyone will know you are my disciples.
- John 15:12–13 — love as I have loved you; greater love has no one than this.
- 1 John 2:7–8 — an old commandment, and yet a new one.
- 1 John 4:19 — we love because he first loved us.
- Romans 13:8–10 — love is the fulfillment of the law.
How to apply it today
Measure by the right yardstick. "Love your neighbor as yourself" can be quietly satisfied by anyone with modest self-regard. "As I have loved you" cannot be satisfied at all — it can only be received and then extended. The standard is meant to drive you back to the source.
Start with the people you are stuck with. The command is aimed at love among disciples, which is harder than it sounds, because these are people you did not choose. The apostles included a tax collector and a zealot. Jesus washed the feet of the man who betrayed him.
Remember that verse 35 makes this evangelism. Jesus stakes the credibility of his disciples' witness not on their arguments but on their love for one another. A church that is orthodox and cold has failed the test he named.
And let the foot washing set the register. The love commanded here is not primarily a feeling to be summoned. It is a basin, picked up, in a room full of people who will not deserve it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Jesus call it a "new" commandment when Leviticus already commanded love? Leviticus 19:18 commanded love of neighbor "as yourself." Jesus supplies a new standard — "as I have loved you" — which no one possessed before he demonstrated it. It is also new in that he gives it as the terms of the new covenant he institutes that night. John himself plays with the paradox, calling it both an old commandment and a new one (1 John 2:7–8).
Does "love one another" mean only other Christians? In this passage the scope is the community of disciples, and verse 35 explains why: their love for one another is how the world will recognize them. That does not cancel Jesus' command to love neighbors and even enemies (Matthew 5:44). John 13:34 addresses a specific relationship — how Christians treat each other — without narrowing the wider obligation taught elsewhere.
What does "as I have loved you" actually look like? The context supplies two pictures. Immediately before, Jesus washed his disciples' feet, taking the role of a slave (John 13:1–17). Immediately after, he goes to the cross. In John 15:13 he names the limit himself: greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. The standard is self-giving, humble, and costly.
Is this commandment possible to keep? Not by imitation alone. John grounds Christian love in a prior gift: "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The command is given to disciples who have just had their feet washed by the one commanding them. Christians across traditions have understood this love as the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work (Galatians 5:22) rather than an achievement of willpower.