34.A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
1 .Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
John 13:34-35: As parents, when they take their leave of their children, in their dying moments, gove them proper instructions and orders, and lay their dying injunctions on them, so Christ taking His leave of His disciples, gives them His, which were, that they LOVE ONE ANOTHER as brethren in the same family, children of the same Father, and fellow disciples with each other; by keeping and agreeing together, praying one for another, bearing one anothers burdens, forbearing and forgiving one another, admonishing each other, and building up one another: and this He calls "a new commandment."
35.By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
2 .And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 .And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 .Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 .Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 .Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 .Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 .Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 .For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10.But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11.When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12.For now we see in a mirror; dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13.And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
As I Have Loved You:To be observed in a new manner, not "in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit. The word neighbor does not not just mean the person you live next door to but all people.
As I Have Loved You, That You Also Love One Another: That which , nothing can, or should, more sttrongly engage to it, as Christ has loved His people freely, notwithstanding all their unworthiness and ungratefulness. We are to love one another, though there may be many things in them observable, which are disagreeable; as Christ loves all His children without any distinction, so they are to love one another, whether poor or rich, weaker or stronger, lesser or greater believers; and as Christ loves them not in word only, but in deed and in truth, we are to love one another with a pure heart fervently, and by love serve one another.
1 Corinthians 13: Many times this chapter is referred to as the Love Chapter. We must reason first of charity(LOVE), the excellency of which he first shows by this, that without it, all other gifts are as nothing before God. And this he proves partly by an induction,and partly also by an argument taken of the end, for what reason those gifts are given. For, to what purpose are those gifts but to God's glory, and the profit of the Church as is before proved? So that those gifts, without charity, have no right use.
It is as if he said, "if there were any tongues of angels, and I had them, and did not use them to benefit my neighbor,it would be nothing else except a vain and prattling type of babbling."
By "faith" he means the gift of doing miracles, and not that faith which justifies, which cannot be void of charity as the other may.
If I deliberately, piece by piece, give all my goods to feed the poor and even deliver up my own body to be burned----Rather than I would renounce my religion. And have not love, it will profit me nothing. Without love, whatever I speak, whatever I have, whatever I do, whatever I suffer, is nothing.
The Love of God, and of our neighbor for God's sake, is patient toward all men.It, suffers all the weakness,ignorance,errors,and infirmities of the children of God; all the malice and wickedness of the children of the world: and all this,not only for a time,but to the end.And in every step toward overcoming evil with good, it is kind, soft, mild and benign. It inspires the sufferer at once with the most sweetness, and the most fervent and tender affection. Love acteth not rashly.---Does not hastily condemn any one; never passes a servere sentence on a slight or sudden view of things. Nor does it ever act or behave in a violent, headstrong, or precipitate manner. Is not puffed up---Yea, humbles the soul to be dust.
