What is Christian Love?

Resources Referenced Man, Woman, and the Meaning of Love by Dietrich von Hildebrand (https://amzn.to/2UxRaQa) The Myth of Religious Neutrality by Dr. Roy Clouser (https://amzn.to/2UxRaQa) The Wisdom of Trauma produced by Science and Nonduality What does the Bible say about loving one another?

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34

Jesus gives this command to his disciples at the Last Supper and following. At this time Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples and predicted the betrayal of Judas. He then prefaces this new commandment by saying, "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

We Protestants love our law/Gospel distinction. It aims at ensuring we neither fall into legalism nor antinomianism. Christ fulfilled God's Law in our place so that we may enjoy renewed fellowship with God our Father. But questions concerning obedience to God's Law in the Christian life persist. And now we have this new commandment, directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ. So, what does this mean?

The command to love one another is repeated 15 times in the New Testament. Christ repeats it in John 15. Paul repeats it in Romans and Thessalonians. Peter repeats it in his letter to exiles of the Dispersion. And John repeats it in his first and second letters warning against false teaching. Paul even says that love is the fulfillment of the law.

But didn't Christ himself say that he fulfilled the law in Matthew 5:17? Romans 8:3-4 explains this:

"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

So the fulfillment of the law in us, through the work of Jesus Christ, manifests in our love for one another.

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