John 13:34-35

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
John 13:34-35


This is cool... for a couple of reasons.  first, Christ commands us to love each other... but not just "do it" but watch me, and love other people just like I have loved you.  He isn't the kind of leader, ever, that just tells you what to do... he shows you, teaches you... he's been there.  And to love other people the way that Christ loves us, that is huge.  And to know how huge it is, we have to study his life, and see the way that he loved other people and had compassion for them.  The way he hung out with people from every socioeconomic category... the way he offered love and peace and healing to those with every kind of background and who were burdened with a myriad of sins...
And then he tells us that our love for each other will set us apart, and make it apparent to all that we are followers of Christ.  Unfortunately there are people who profess Christianity all over the world that are slaughtering other people because they believe differently... who hate other people because they aren't living a particular moral law... or because they are different from themselves in some other way.  So right here, we see that that isn't what Christ wants... and people who hate each other are NOT his disciples.  Instead of working on how to divide the good from the bad and put up walls between the groups... he worked on uniting people, on breaking down those walls... on teaching people to serve and love each other instead of investing so much time in thinking about who was better or about who was more obedient.