The Commands of Jesus Are a New Kind of Command, Rooted in Love Received

The post asks what Jesus meant by “my commandments” in John 14:15, and it begins by separating those commands from the Ten Commandments. The author argues that the Ten Commandments belong to the Law of Moses, and that the Law of Moses is not the same as the Law of Christ. Jesus’s command in John 13:34, to love one another as he has loved us, is presented as the key example.

The author describes two things to know about this command. First, it is new, not a revised version of the old law of Moses. Second, it works as a different kind of law, one that operates whether or not we try to keep it, much like gravity. The post contrasts the Law of Moses, which it describes as burdensome and condemning, with the commands of Jesus, which it calls light and life-giving. The author also notes that Jesus sometimes quoted the old law to people living under it, but gave his disciples something new.

The central difference is where the love comes from. Under the old law, people had to supply the love themselves and were cursed when they fell short. Under the new command, believers love others with the love they have first received from God. The author summarizes this by saying that love is less something we manufacture and more something we receive, and that drawing from the Father’s love empowers us to love others.

The post also points to 1 John 2:7–8, where the apostle John calls the command both old and new. The author explains that it was an old command the apostles had heard from the beginning, yet it remains new in the way it is grounded in Christ’s love. The author suggests that many Christians exhaust themselves trying to keep Moses’s commands when they could rest in Christ’s, and that what the law requires, grace provides.

To illustrate, the post offers a comparison between a harsh, abusive workplace and a new owner who treats workers like family, invests in them, and cares for them. The workers become happy and productive, and the author uses this picture to suggest how the change from law to grace can look.

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