Not Everyone Who Hurts You is Judas
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34
Jesus waits until Judas leaves the room before giving this command, and that detail matters more than we might realize at first glance. The betrayer is gone, the wolf has exited, and what remains are His true disciples, His church, the ones who belong to Him. It is to them that He turns and speaks these words. Not about loving enemies, not about loving neighbors, but about loving one another.
This is different.
They had always been taught to love their neighbor as themselves, to treat others the way they would want to be treated. But Jesus raises the bar. He shifts both the subject and the standard. The subject becomes the brethren, fellow believers, those in the room. The standard becomes Himself, not your own preferences, not your own feelings, not your own threshold for tolerance, but the way He has loved you.
And then John places Peter’s denial right next to Judas’ betrayal.
That is not an accident.
Both men fail Jesus. Both abandon Him. Both cause real pain. Yet one is a wolf and the other is weak. One hates Jesus, the other loves Him. One is hardened in evil, the other is immature and unstable. And what we tend to do is collapse those categories. We take someone who hurt us, someone who disappointed us, someone who acted in a way that was sinful or unrefined, and we place them in the category of Judas.
But many times, they are Peter.
And Jesus does not give us the freedom to redefine people based on our pain. He gives us a command that overrides our instincts, our experiences, and even our wounds.
Love one another as I have loved you.
John 13:34
Jesus waits until Judas leaves the room before giving this command, and that detail matters more than we might realize at first glance. The betrayer is gone, the wolf has exited, and what remains are His true disciples, His church, the ones who belong to Him. It is to them that He turns and speaks these words. Not about loving enemies, not about loving neighbors, but about loving one another.
This is different.
They had always been taught to love their neighbor as themselves, to treat others the way they would want to be treated. But Jesus raises the bar. He shifts both the subject and the standard. The subject becomes the brethren, fellow believers, those in the room. The standard becomes Himself, not your own preferences, not your own feelings, not your own threshold for tolerance, but the way He has loved you.
And then John places Peter’s denial right next to Judas’ betrayal.
That is not an accident.
Both men fail Jesus. Both abandon Him. Both cause real pain. Yet one is a wolf and the other is weak. One hates Jesus, the other loves Him. One is hardened in evil, the other is immature and unstable. And what we tend to do is collapse those categories. We take someone who hurt us, someone who disappointed us, someone who acted in a way that was sinful or unrefined, and we place them in the category of Judas.
But many times, they are Peter.
And Jesus does not give us the freedom to redefine people based on our pain. He gives us a command that overrides our instincts, our experiences, and even our wounds.
Love one another as I have loved you.
Posted in The Word Made Flesh
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