In

It was a late evening. Passover always was. But it was not the kind of evening where you were tired when it was over. Rather, it was normally the kind of evening where you were energized, joyful and fulfilled. This night, granted, had been different. His feet were still tingling a bit from when Jesus washed them. He had listened to the curious exchange between Jesus and Peter about cleansing and feet washing. But mostly he was zeroed in on what Jesus was teaching that night. He seemed sad, distant, yet obviously passionate about what he was saying. It was as if he were sharing some of the things that were most on his heart, things he had waited until just this moment to share with just these friends.

"A new command I give you," Jesus said. He paused, looking at each one of them individually. "A new command I give you," he repeated. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35). He couldn't help but remember how Jesus, more than a few times in the last couple of years, had reminded people who would listen that the two greatest commandments were these: love God and love others.

That night would continue to echo in John's mind. He remembered it as he watched Jesus suffer and die the next day, especially as he heard Jesus tenderly entrust his mother into John's care. He recalled it as he stood in the Upper Room and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. He'd seen it in action as he and the other disciples learned to love those who persecuted them. And he knew it to be true as he became an established leader in the church, the last of the living followers of Jesus and he taught people to live the way Jesus had taught him.

So when he sets pen to paper, that night comes flowing out. "We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did" (1 John 2:3-6).

To be "in" Jesus, to be part of what he is doing, to be connected to him or, as Jesus himself put it, to be a disciple, is to live the way Jesus lived. Love others, even when they persecute you, even when they are nailing you to a cross. Love others, even when they don't want to be loved. Love others, even when they don't deserve it. Love others as God has loved you and as God loves them, for that's the greatest commandment and the best evidence that Jesus lives in you and you live in him.

John never forgot that.

Do we?