João 13
John Piper · Citado em PreceptAustin
João 13
Piper - What’s new about the commandment to love each other? “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” I see two answers implied in this verse. The key to the answers is found in the words in the second half of the verse: “. . . just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The newness of the command to love each other is found in the words “as I have loved you.” I see two ways that the commandment to love each other is new in those words. First, the command is new because it is a command to live out the love of Jesus. Second, the command is new because it is a command to live on the love of Jesus. The words “as I have loved you” contain a pattern for our love for each other, and they contain a power for our love for each other. Loving each other is not a new command per se. It was already there in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”). What’s new is that Jesus is now the pattern we live by and the power we live on. Let’s look at these two kinds of newness. 1. Jesus, Our Pattern: Living Out His Love The basis of the first kind of newness (Jesus as our pattern) is found earlier in John 13. Look at what Jesus does at the very beginning of this chapter to provide the example of what he means when he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:1 and following: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. . . . [Jesus’ love for us is about to be demonstrated]. 4b He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. [This is Philippians 2:3, counting others more significant than himself as he takes the role of a slave] . . . 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. So here we have Jesus giving us an acted out pattern of love. So when we get to verse 34 and he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another,” we don’t have to go guessing what he means by “as.” As I have loved you in the pattern I just gave you a few moments ago. Verse 15 says, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” And verse 34 says, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So the pattern of love to be followed is clear. Laying Aside Status and Becoming a Servant This is how we are to love each other at Bethlehem. It involves at least two things. One is that we lay aside status and rank and prestige and privilege and take the form of a servant—that’s what Philippians 2:7 said, and that’s what Jesus does here. Jn 13:14: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” By virtue of my status and rank and privilege as our Lord and Teacher, I am not obliged to wash your feet. But I “count you as more significant than myself” and serve you. Engaging in Practical Deeds of Helpfulness So the first part of Jesus’ pattern is that it lays aside rank and privilege to serve others. The second part of the pattern is that this love involves practical deeds of helpfulness. In those days, almost everyone walked. The roads and paths were dirt. There were probably no socks and no sidewalks. Everyone’s feet were more or less caked with dirt. The dirty work had to be done. Jesus did it for those who should have been doing it for him. He laid down a sense of entitlement. And served. The new commandment is that we look at this pattern, that we watch our Lord and Teacher and Savior do this, and follow him in it. We live out the love that we see in Jesus. 2. Jesus, Our Power: Living On His Love That leaves one more angle on the newness of this command to love each other. I called it, not living out, but living on the love of Jesus. When Jesus says that the new commandment to love each other is a commandment to love as I have loved you, he draws attention not only to the pattern of love we follow, but the power to love that we need. Here’s where I get this idea. If you search the Gospel of John for the closest verbal parallel to the words of verse 34 (“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”), the closest parallel is John 15:12: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” But here, instead of acting out a pattern to follow, Jesus describes a connection with himself that gives the power to love. So the newness of the command to love like Jesus is not only the pattern of his behavior but his connection to vital power—our connection to that power by being connected to Him. Look three verses earlier at John 15:9–10: “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide (aorist imperative) in My love. If you keep My commandments (see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to keep His commandments), you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (ED: DID YOU NOTICE JESUS' CONDITIONAL STATEMENT? OBEDIENCE ASSURES ABIDING!) The Key to Jesus’s Love Jesus said the key to His love was His relationship with God the Father: “I abide in His love” (verse 10). Jesus lives in constant and perfect union with the Father. The effect is that the Father’s love moves into Jesus and lives there as a divine power to love. Then Jesus says at the end of Jn 15:9, “Abide in My love.” So He abides in His Father's love, and we are to abide in His love. (HOW? ENABLED BY HIS SPIRIT. DEPENDING ON HIS SPIRIT. FILLED WITH/CONTROLLED BY HIS SPIRIT.) That’s how we are able to love each other “as He loves us.” He loves us by abiding in the love of the Father. We love each other by abiding in the love of the Son—which is the love of the Father. (ED: AND REMEMBER THAT THE KEY TO ABIDING IN THE LOVE OF THE SON IS OUR OBEDIENCE WHICH IN TURN IS DEPENDENT ON OUR RELIANCE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT TO ENABLE US TO OBEY - cf Php 2:12+ and Phil 2:13NLT+). Abiding in Jesus We can see the picture Jesus has in his mind in Jn 15:5: “I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do (ED: ABSOLUTELY) nothing (ED: OF ETERNAL VALUE).” There’s where I get the power idea. “Apart from Me,” Jesus says, “you have no power to do anything.” You cannot love each other as I command you to love, if you do not abide in Me as I abide in My Father. (ED: I AGREE BUT WOULD ADD THAT NOW THE POWER IS FROM THE SPIRIT OF JESUS WHO DWELLS IN US. SO THIS PREDICATES THAT WE MUST BE CONTINUALLY FILLED WITH HIS SPIRIT TO ENABLE OBEDIENCE AND THE KEEPING OF THIS "NEW" COMMANDMENT - cf Eph 5:18+). So the newness of Jesus’ commandment is not only that Jesus has become our pattern for love by taking the role of a servant, but also that Jesus has become our power for love by himself abiding in the Father so that as we abide in him we are given the very love of the Father with which to love each other. Trusting and Treasuring Jesus And if you wonder what hour-by-hour abiding in Jesus means, it means hour-by-hour trusting Him to meet all our needs and be our supreme treasure. And when we are confident that He will meet all our needs and be our treasure, we are freed and empowered to humble ourselves and meet the needs of others. Which leaves one last question: How can we trust Him to meet all our needs and be our treasure if we are sinners and deserve only wrath from God and not love? Jesus, Our Propitiation: Laying Down His Life for Us The answer is given in this very context. Right after saying in John 15:12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” he says in Jn 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus could not leave us with only a pattern and only a power through union with him by faith. He had to go deeper and solve the problem of John 3:36+: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Our problem is not mainly that we don’t love like we should. Our problem is mainly that because of our sin, God’s wrath remains on us. How is it removed? Why does God cease to be angry with us and instead pour love into our lives through Jesus and empower us to love? The answer is John 15:13: Jesus laid down his life for his friends. Jesus died in our place. Jesus endured the wrath of God that we deserved so that God’s justice would be satisfied and his love could flow unhindered through Christ to us and through us to each other. The commandment to love each other is new because Jesus is the pattern and the power of that love. And He can be those for us, even though we are sinners, because He removed the wrath of God by laying down His life for us. (The New Commandment of Christ: 'Love One Another ) New (2537) kainos probably from root ken [qen] = freshly come, or begun) is an adjective which refers to that which is new kind (unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of). It relates to being not previously present. Kainos is not “new” in time, recent (Greek = "neos"), but “new” as to form or quality, of different nature from what is contrasted as old. The same word qualifies something as “new” in the sense of a replacement for something that is old and obsolete—as in the “new covenant” (Heb 8:8). Converts are “new persons” (2Co 5:17+; Ep 4:24). Kainos is used in an eschatological sense to describe the “new” heaven and earth (2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1). Kainos - 42x/36v - fresh(3), new(37), new things(1), things new(1). Matt. 9:17; Matt. 13:52; Matt. 26:29; Matt. 27:60; Mk. 1:27; Mk. 2:21; Mk. 2:22; Mk. 14:25; Mk. 16:17; Lk. 5:36; Lk. 5:38; Lk. 22:20; Jn. 13:34; Jn. 19:41; Acts 17:19; Acts 17:21; 1 Co. 11:25; 2 Co. 3:6; 2 Co. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:15; Eph. 4:24; Heb. 8:8; Heb. 8:13; Heb. 9:15; 2 Pet. 3:13; 1 Jn. 2:7; 1 Jn. 2:8; 2 Jn. 1:5; Rev. 2:17; Rev. 3:12; Rev. 5:9; Rev. 14:3; Rev. 21:1; Rev. 21:2; Rev. 21:5 One another (240) allelon is a reciprocal (= shared, felt, done by each to the other) pronoun which means each other, reciprocally or mutually (Negative sense Mt 24:10). s a reciprocal (= shared, felt, done by each to the other) pronoun which means each other, reciprocally or mutually (Negative sense Mt 24:10). Vine writes that allelon is "a reciprocal pronoun in the genitive plural, signifying of, or from, one another (akin to allos, another [of the same kind in contrast to heteros]) e.g., Mt. 25:32; Jn 13:22; Acts 15:39; 19:38; 1Co 7:5; Gal 5:17; the accusative allēlous (Same root pronoun allelon - the "-ous" identifies it as in the accusative case) denotes “one another,” e.g., Acts 7:26, lit., ‘why do you wrong one another?’; 2Th 1:3; in Ep 4:32 Col. 3:13, e.g., “each other;” in 1Th. 5:15, “one (toward) another”; the dative allēlois denotes “one to another,” e.g., Lk 7:32 (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words) Allelon in 1 John - 1 Jn. 1:7; 1 Jn. 3:11; 1 Jn. 3:23; 1 Jn. 4:7; 1 Jn. 4:11; 1 Jn. 4:12 ILLUSTRATION - John 13:34–37 The sign that you followed Abraham was circumcision. The sign that you followed Moses was keeping the Sabbath. The sign that you followed John the Baptist was that you were baptized. The sign that you follow Jesus Christ is that you love one another. William
João 13
Piper explains why the disciples were not able to follow Jesus now - They couldn’t follow because they were morally unable to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. You think you can follow me, Peter? You won’t even make it through the night! And it wasn’t just Peter who failed. They all failed. They all failed.John 16:32: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone” (see Mark 14:50). They were not ready to make the sacrifices necessary to follow a crucified Messiah. They needed a greater power from the Holy Spirit. But there was another reason why they couldn’t follow Jesus that night, and this was very good news. Jesus was about to do what only he could do. And what he would do is die not mainly as an example to inspire them, but as a substitute to save them. Oswald Chambers - Why cannot I follow thee now? (Borrow My Utmost for His Highest - page 4) (or here) Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? John 13:37. There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means; or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God’s guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt—don’t. In the beginning you may see clearly what God’s will is—the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, something you feel distinctly before God is His will for you to do, never do it on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will end in making difficulties that will take years of time to put right. Wait for God’s time to bring it round and He will do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move. Peter did not wait on God, he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” Peter’s declaration was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him … The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.” This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself, or of what he was capable. Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other. John 13:38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times. John 13:38 CLICK HERE TO READ PASSAGE IN OVER 60 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Will you lay down your life for Me: Pr 16:18 Pr 28:26 Pr 29:23 1Co 10:12 a rooster will not crow until: Jn 18:16-17,25-27 Mt 26:34,69-75 Mk 14:30,66-72 Lu 22:34,56-62 Related Passages: Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. Proverbs 28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered. Proverbs 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor. 1 Corinthians 10:12+ Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed (present imperative see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) that he does not fall. John 18:16-17; 25-27 but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in. 17 Then the slave-girl who kept the door *said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He *said, “I am not.” John 18:25-27 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it, and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, *said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” 27 Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed. Matthew 26:34 Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Matthew 26:69-75 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came to him and said, “You too were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” 71 When he had gone out to the gateway, another servant-girl saw him and *said to those who were there, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” 73 A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Surely you too are one of them; for even the way you talk gives you away.” 74 Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. Mark 14:30+ And Jesus *said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.” Mark 14:66-72+ As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest *came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. 69 The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” 71 But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” 72 Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep. Luke 22:34+ And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” Luke 22:56-62+ And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” (GUZIK QUIPPED - "To him, a servant-girl’s tongue was sharper than an executioner’s sword.") 58 A little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” 59 After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly. PETER'S PRESUMPTION AND JESUS' PREDICTION Peter was presumptive and manifested his typical bravado, bravado describing a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress, especially by doing something unnecessary and dangerous. Jesus is never impressed with our fleshly bravado such as Peter expressed in Matthew 26:35 "Peter *said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life (psuche) for Me? "Will you die willingly for me?" Rhetorical question calculated to get Peter's attention. Jesus question is a check on whether Peter's affirmation is impulse and/or self-confidence, both of which will fail the coming test! Peter was sincere, but sincerity would not enable him to pass the test. It is interesting that for in the phrase "for Me" is the preposition huper which means in behalf of or for the sake of, and is used of Jesus' laying down His life for (huper) us (cf Titus 2:14 "Who gave Himself for [huper] us, Ro 5:6, 8 "for [huper] the ungodly....for [huper] us", 1Co 11:24 "This is My body, which is for [huper] you") which of course speaks of His substitutionary atonement. Our own flesh is weak, but God will supply our every need. -- J Vernon McGee Truly, truly (amen, amen) - This double amen would surely get Peter's attention, although he would still not fully understand until later. I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times - Jesus' prediction is based on His divine foreknowledge. Yes, He had emptied Himself, but He was still able to accurately predict the future. Bob Utley "a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times" This must have been a Roman rooster. Jews did not allow animals in the city because it was holy ground. This is why most wealthy people had gardens (which needed fertilizer) outside the city walls on the Mt. of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane was one such garden. Jesus is using prediction to encourage belief in Himself. Even something as negative as this reveals His knowledge and control of future events (cf. John 18:17-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:31-35; Mark 14:27-31; Luke 22:31-34). William Barclay distinguishes between Judas' betrayal of Judas and Peter's three denials - "The sin of Peter was the sin of a moment's weakness and a lifetime's regret." D A Carson - Sadly, good intentions in a secure room after good food are far less attractive in a darkened garden with a hostile mob. At this point in his pilgrimage, Peter’s intentions and self-assessment vastly outstrip his strength. And so Jesus utters the fateful prediction: I tell you the truth (cf. John 1:51), before the cock crows, you will disown me three times! (BORROW The Gospel according to John PAGE 486) J C