I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the in-between hymns.
Today’s song is A New Commandment from 1952 – though I always thought of it as a 1970s charismatic song.
This used to be a very popular song in my circles back in the 1980s. It’s entirely based on the following verses:
John 13:34, 35
“A new command I give you: 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.”
I’m sometimes a little puzzled by the verse. Why was it new? Didn’t God always want us to love others? Even in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we see the following verses:
Leviticus 19:18
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:34
34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
And earlier, Jesus had told them to love their enemies. And he used The Good Samaritan parable to explain that love can come from someone outside your circles. It’s not unique to Christians.
So what was new? Well, now they had the example of Jesus to follow. Jesus sometimes took them to task or even expressed his frustration with them. Yet, he persisted with them and showed them amazing love and kindness. He had just washed their feet and was about to die on the cross to pay for their sins.
I think a key consideration was that after Jesus ascended, he wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t start arguing, despising each other and splitting into different factions – something that we’re all prone to do.
I’ve always been a big fan of rock music. But when I read biographies of rock groups, such as the Beatles and Pink Floyd, I see a lot of love and kindness, but also a lot of hostility. And even as children, we very quickly learn how natural it is to argue and fight with our brothers and sisters and friends. Over the last 2,000 years, Christians have shown each other love, but there’s also been plenty of hatred. As an evangelical, I like to think that the nasty people weren’t really true believers like we are. But I don’t think that we totally exclude ourselves.
That relates to what is know as the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.
Thankfully, nowadays disputes don’t involve violence, at least not in my part of the world. But it’s very common to have splits in churches, particularly when you have people who are zealous and have strong convictions. When I was a Roman Catholic, going to Mass was like going to the cinema. I didn’t really engage with anyone. But evangelical churches were more like being in a family – where people can annoy each other. I’m sure I’ve done my fair share of annoying myself 😀. So, I need to listen to the words of Jesus – love one another. And thankfully, even when churches split, they generally become friendly again quite soon.
Another puzzle is “by this all people will know that you are my disciples”. Well, when all people observe Christian churches, do they conclude that people love each other? Yes and No. We would conclude that a family love each other, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they argue. And, you might argue that churches fall short of what Jesus really wants. But if I see a group of Christians that argue and another group that are united, I wouldn’t conclude that the united group are necessarily more Christian or godly. The group that argue might have stronger convictions and might be more careful to do precisely what God commands, at least as they see it. And the group that are more united might see church as simply a place to find friends and people who might prove useful to them 😀.
But maybe it does subject a church to ridicule if members become deeply hostile to each other. I’ve been in churches where there was a lot of tension, and it wasn’t nice. At these times, I tended to like passive people being around – who weren’t very zealous and didn’t have strong opinions. So, I like churches to consist of true believers, but lots of different types. Sometimes I value the zealous ones more, and sometimes I value the quiet useless ones more. But they’re not really useless. And we should all try to show each other patience and kindness.
Paul’s “body” illustration is helpful here:
Anyway, as with all commandments, we don’t keep them perfectly, which is why we need a Saviour. But thankfully, the early church, dispute some disputes, went on to grow and spread throughout the world – even as far as Ireland 😀. Sometimes people saw the fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland as religious conflict. But the terrorists weren’t religious people. Religious people worked for peace. The fighting in evangelical churches is generally about things like whether we should sing new songs or little theological arguments – or family type disputes.
Anyway, here are some other versions of today’s song.
