John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

In what sense are we to understand that this was a new commandment? Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, was a positive precept of the law, Leviticus 19:18 "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." "As I have loved you," (John 13:34), is the new, fresh distinction that Jesus makes. Jesus was to demonstrate a "greater love," (John 15:13), then man had yet beheld in that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," (Romans 5:8).

Jesus life was to demonstrate how we, by His grace alone, are to "magnify the law, and make it honourable." (Isaiah 42:21).

If, "love is the fulfilling of the law," (Rom. 13:10), then love is righteousness. If "God is love," and, "love is of God," (1 John 4:8, 7), then only that which Christ accomplishes in the heart and life is acceptable with God. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," (Isaiah 64:6). Love without selfish motive, love which "seeketh not her own," (1 Cor. 13:5), is found in the heart of God alone and supplied with His presence in the heart.