That is as new as all the rest. That 'as' expresses the manner of the
love, but it also expresses the motive and the power. It might be
translated into the equivalent 'in the fashion in which,' or it might
be translated into the equivalent 'since—' 'I have loved you.' The
original might bear the rendering, 'that ye also may love one another.'
That is to say, what keeps men from obeying this commandment is the
instinctive self-regard which is natural to us all. There are muscles
in the body which are so constructed that they close tightly; and the
heart is something like one of these sphincter muscles—it shuts by
nature, especially if there has been anything put inside it over which
it can shut and keep it all to itself. But there is one thing that
dethrones Self, and enthrones the angel Love in a heart, and that is,
that into that heart there shall come surging the sense of the great
love 'wherewith I have loved you.' That melts the iceberg; nothing else
will.
That love of Christ to us, received into our hearts, and there
producing an answering love to Him, will make us, in the measure in
which we live in it and let it rule us, love everything and every
person that He loves. That love of Jesus Christ, stealing into our
hearts and there sweetening the ever-springing 'issues of life,' will
make them flow out in glad obedience to any commandment of His. That
love of Jesus Christ, received into our hearts, and responded to by our
answering love, will work, as love always does, a magical
transformation. A great monastic teacher wrote his precious book about
_The Imitation of Christ_. 'Imitation' is a great word,
'Transformation' is a greater. 'We all,' receiving on the mirror of our
loving hearts the love of Jesus Christ, 'are changed into the same
likeness.' Thus, then, the love, which is our pattern, is also our
motive and our power for obedience, and the more we bring ourselves
under its influences, the more we shall love all those who are beloved
by, and lovers of, Jesus.
That is the one foundation for a world knit together in the bonds of
amity and concord. There have been attempts at brotherhood, and the
guillotine has ended what was begun in the name of 'fraternity.' Men
build towers, but there is no cement between the bricks, unless the
love of Christ holds them together, and therefore Babel after Babel
comes down about the ears of its builders. But notwithstanding all that
is dark to-day, and though the war-clouds are lowering, and the hearts
of men are inflamed with fierce passions, Christ's commandment is
Christ's promise; and though the vision tarry, it will surely come. So
even to-day Christian men ought to stand for Christ's peace, and for
Christ's love. The old commandment which we have had from the
beginning, is the new commandment that fits to-day as it fits all the
ages. It is a dream, say some. Yes, a dream; but a morning dream which
comes true. Let us do the little we can to make it true, and to bring
about the day when the flock of men will gather round the one Shepherd,
who loved them to the death, and who has bid them and helped them to
'love one another as'—and since—'He has loved them.'