The Christian commandment: By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16

The Christian commandment, the commandment of love, is a central theme in the first epistle of John. Although the commandment taught by Jesus has its roots in the Old Testament ("Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself" Leviticus 19:18), the excellence of love reached its highest importance with Jesus and his spiritual doctrine about the Kingdom of God. For Jesus, salvation and blessedness no longer depended on fulfilling difficult imperatives, but on a special grace bestowed by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's plan, as happened when the disciples, being in Jerusalem during the feast of Pentecost, received the spirit of wisdom in tongues of fire.
Obeying this commandment implies a fundamental transformation of man, since this commandment is the gateway to the spiritual gift of eternal life, the life that, once obtained, cannot be lost. And Jesus taught this topic especially when he spoke to Nicodemus about spiritual rebirth (John 3), and when he spoke to the Samaritan woman who was drawing water from a well about the living water that quenches all thirst (John 4). This is why the apostle wrote in his first epistle: "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death" 1 John 3:14.
And Jesus was even clearer, the commandment of love cannot be understood rationally except by the grace of the Spirit of God, which allows man to enter into the knowledge of the divine mysteries. And this is so because God's love is not a self-centered love, but an edifying, expansive, progressive love; it is the love projected towards all of God's creation. That is why the apostle expressed himself in this way when he spoke about the gift of love: "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers" 1 John 3:16. In Jesus' thinking, giving one's life means considering our happiness as important as the happiness of others, and not thinking only in ourselves; the Christian commandment is built on this truth.

For more information visit my profile follow the link and download for free my ebook.