The full extent of his love

John 13:1-5

Life is the keyword in John 1-12, with love scarcely mentioned. But that’s reversed in John 13-17, with love used 31 times and life only 6. Love is the key word – and the key action – to look out for as we go through these chapters.

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Our experience of God’s love and our love for others are both rooted in Jesus’s love for us. John 13-17 begins with a declaration that “he now showed them the full extent of his love” (13:1). It’s clear from the context that this goes far beyond the lowly act of foot-washing. The Passover feast is at hand, recalling the Exodus from Egypt, a rescue marked by a lamb’s blood. Now the Lamb of God is about to achieve a far greater salvation for them through his sacrifice (John 1:29; 1 Cor.5:7), the fulfilment of the purpose for which he had come from God and after which he would then return to him (13:1,3; Luke 9:31).

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His washing of their feet is therefore a sign of the cleansing he will provide through his imminent death, and therefore a sign too of the full extent of his love for us (Rom.5:8). Out of this will come the call to us to love one another in the same sacrificial way. But the starting place for that has to be the knowledge of how much each one of us is loved by him.