Jesus began His instructions with His disciples' most important responsibility.
13:31-32 Judas' departure to meet with the chief priests signalled the beginning of the Son of Man's glorification, which John recorded Jesus as consistently regarding as beginning with His arrest (cf. 12:23). Note the Savior's positive albeit troubled attitude toward the events that lay before Him (v. 21). The title "Son of Man"unites the ideas of suffering and glory as mentioned previously. This is the last of 12 occurrences of this title in John's Gospel.
"In its general usage it is the title of the incarnate Christ who is the representative of humanity before God and the representative of deity in human life."447
Jesus explained that His glorification would mean glory for the Father who would glorify the Son. Thus Jesus continued to stress His unity with the Father to help His disciples appreciate both His individual identity and His essential deity. The disciples would not have to wait long to see the Son's glory.
How did Jesus glorify the Father? He explained how later: by finishing the work the Father gave Him to do (17:4). That is also how we glorify the Father.
13:33 Glorification for Jesus involved temporary separation from His believing disciples. Jesus used a tender term for His disciples that showed His strong affection for them as members of His family. "Little children"(Gr. teknia, dear children) occurs only here in the fourth Gospel, but John used it seven times in 1 John mirroring Jesus' compassionate spirit (1 John 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21; cf. Gal. 4:19). Death and ascension to heaven would separate Jesus from them.
13:34 Having announced their inevitable separation Jesus now began to explain what He expected of His disciples during their absence from Him. They were to love one another as He had loved them. They had seen His love for them during His entire earthly ministry and most recently in His washing of their feet, but they would only understand its depth through the Cross.
The command to love one another was not completely new (1 John 2:7-8), but in the Mosaic Law the standard was "as you love yourself"(Lev. 19:18). Now there was a new and higher standard, namely "as I have loved you."It was also a new (Gr. kainen, fresh rather than different) commandment in that it was part of a new covenant that Jesus would ratify with His blood (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). In that covenant God promised to enable His people to love by transforming their hearts and minds (Jer. 31:29-34; Ezek. 36:24-26). It is only by God's transforming grace that believers can love one another as Jesus has loved us.448
13:35 That supernatural love would distinguish disciples of Jesus. Love for one another would mark them off as His disciples. It is possible to be a disciple of Jesus without demonstrating much supernatural love. However that kind of love is what bears witness to a disciple's connection with Jesus and thereby honors Him (cf. 1 John 3:10b-23; 4:7-16).449Every believer manifests some supernatural love since the loving God indwells him or her (1 John 3:14). However, it is possible to quench and to grieve the indwelling Spirit so that we do not manifest much love.
Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:43-47). Here He taught us to love one another. These instructions do not contradict one another or present two different standards. They simply point in different directions.
