Yohanes 13:34

13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love ¹  one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ² 

Yohanes 17:21-23

17:21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray ³  that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:22 The glory ⁴  you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – 17:23 I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, ⁵  so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

[13:34]  ¹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause gives the content of the commandment. This is indicated by a dash in the translation.

[13:34]  ² sn The idea that love is a commandment is interesting. In the OT the ten commandments have a setting in the covenant between God and Israel at Sinai; they were the stipulations that Israel had to observe if the nation were to be God’s chosen people. In speaking of love as the new commandment for those whom Jesus had chosen as his own (John 13:1, 15:16) and as a mark by which they could be distinguished from others (13:35), John shows that he is thinking of this scene in covenant terminology. But note that the disciples are to love “Just as I have loved you” (13:34). The love Jesus has for his followers cannot be duplicated by them in one sense, because it effects their salvation, since he lays down his life for them: It is an act of love that gives life to people. But in another sense, they can follow his example (recall to the end, 13:1; also 1 John 3:16, 4:16 and the interpretation of Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet). In this way Jesus’ disciples are to love one another: They are to follow his example of sacrificial service to one another, to death if necessary.

[17:21]  ³ tn The words “I pray” are repeated from the first part of v. 20 for clarity.

[17:22]  ⁴ tn Grk And the glory.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:23]  ⁵ tn Or “completely unified.”