Fourth, from the publishing of the new commandment.
Fourth, from the publishing of the new commandment.
§ 68. (IV) John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Therefore [they say] Christ gave new laws.
We respond. (1) Sometimes “new” denotes the same thing as “something else” (Exod. 1:8; Judg. 5:8; etc.). If we take the word “new” in this sense, the meaning will be: “I have given you a commandment about avoiding ambition and pursuing humility, to which I add another commandment about mutual affection.”
(2) The commandment to love is not absolutely and simply new, as the apostle John teaches clearly in his First Epistle (2:7): “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the Word which you have heard.” 2 John 5: “And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.”
(3) The analogy of faith teaches the same thing. Indeed, the commandment to love is the sum of the whole Law (Matt. 22:36–40). “ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not kill,’ etc., and any other commandment are summed up in this sentence: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself ’ ” (Rom. 13:9). How, then, will the commandment to love one’s brother be absolutely and simply new?
(4) Hence it is called “new” in a certain respect (just as the Gospel is called “new wine,” Mark 2:22). It is new because it is confirmed by a new repetition. It is new because it is commended by precept and by the new and singular example of Christ dying on our behalf. It is new because it is taught in a new way, namely, freed from the manifold burden of ceremonial laws and mitigated by evangelical equity [ἐπιείκεια]. It is new because it is set down for the new man who is renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, walks in newness of life, and loves his neighbor sincerely.
Irenaeus (bk. 4, ch. 25, p. 250): “Christ did not bring something greater than His commandment to love but has renewed the same thing for His disciples, commanding them to love God with all their heart and other people as themselves.”
Augustine (on John, tract. 65): “Why is that called ‘new’ by the Lord which is demonstrated so clearly as old? Is it a new commandment because He has taken off from us the old man and put on us the new man? Nothing makes the hearer—or, rather, the obedient person—new but that love which the Lord commands; and, to distinguish it from carnal love, He adds, ‘as I have loved you.’ ”