Article Library

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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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The New Mandate to Love One Another

“Now, I know you know what comes next, but if you didn’t know what He was going to say next, I think you would guess, ‘You should wash My feet,’ right? ‘Just as I have washed your feet, you should wash my feet.’ But He doesn’t say that. He says, ‘You ought to wash one another’s feet.’ Washing Jesus’ feet would be a great honor. Being in His presence would be the answer to a long time wish for all of us. But He doesn’t say that you now are to wash My feet. That would be easy to do. That would be an act of worship, an expression of great devotion. But to wash one another’s feet. He sort of turns the tables on the subject of love a little later on, when he says, toward the end of that chapter, verse 34, ‘A new commandment I give to you.’ Mandatum novum reads The Vulgate. A new mandate and it isn’t that you love God. It isn’t that you love Jesus. That’s not the new commandment. There’s nothing new about that. That goes all the way back to Deuteronomy 6. The new unique mandate is that we love each other, that we love each other.”

Jesus’s Love for the Disciples

“‘Before the Feast of Passover, Jesus knowing His hour had come when He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them [eis telos] to the uttermost’ (John 13:1). He loved them to the maximum, loved them to the end. That’s what held them together. That’s what made Him unique, and His love for them was not fickle. It was constant, and it included the one who denied Him, the one who doubted Him, another who betrayed Him.”

Love Isn’t Jealous or Envious

“‘Love is not jealous.’ Doesn’t burn with envy. Boy, that’s a battle in ministry . . . is envy. You’ll just fight it all the way through school and then you get into an area where somebody has a larger church than you do, or there’s a larger crowd than you draw. Or maybe outstrips you in an area, and if you’re not careful, you’ll envy that person. Love isn’t envious. There’s a difference between jealousy and envy. Jealousy is the inordinate passion to possess what I have. Envy is the inordinate passion to have what someone else possesses. ‘Jealousy,’ says Solomon, ‘is as cruel as the grave.”

Modern Day Take on 1 Corinthians 13

“If I plan to go to one of the more rigorous and challenging mission fields, strong in faith and unswerving in confidence, unintimidated by the hardships I will surely face, and I don’t love those with whom I work, I’ll soon be a dropout. If I am so committed to reaching the inner city that my spouse and I will give away whatever we need to, to pour our lives into those who live in that setting, but deep down inside, we don’t love those we live among, we will have little ministry that will last. And even if I someday find myself in a life-threatening situation, standing before a hostile body of angry accusers who have turned against Christ and despise the things I hold dear, and I lack love for those who hate my Savior, no rewards await me.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your finger tips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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