The word 'love' is quite familiar to us. It fills our songs, our movies, our everyday greetings. Yet the love Jesus teaches is different from what we commonly experience. 'As I have loved you'—this standard is the heart of the new commandment. We feel the weight of His request: to live according to Jesus's own love as our measure.

Jesus did not choose to love only those it was safe to love. He sat at the table with Judas, knowing he would betray Him. He chose Peter as a disciple, knowing he would deny Him three times. He loved not because they deserved it, but because He decided to love them. That love is the model He showed us.

There is a reason this commandment is called 'new.' The Old Testament already contained the command to love your neighbor. What Jesus called new was the standard itself. Now love is measured not by mutual obligation, but by sacrificial love that gives of itself. It is an invitation to a higher calling.

Jesus said that by our love for one another, all people will know we are His disciples. Faith is not proven by how much doctrine we know, but by how we live out love in our communities. In our homes, at work, in our gatherings—we must ask: Is Christ's love flowing through us?

Is there someone difficult to love in your life today? Reach out to that very person as Jesus would. That single act becomes the most powerful testimony of Christ to the world.