A “new” command?

John 13:34 "I am giving you a new command: that you keep on loving each other. In the same way that I have loved you, you are also to keep on loving each other. (CJB)

Wait – what? “A NEW command?” Can that be?

No, it can’t! The “New Testament” is basically commentary on the “Old Testament” – specifically, the Torah, which cannot be changed in any way. So, let’s examine exactly what is meant in this passage by going back to the Words of YHWH:

Leviticus 19:18 Don't take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am ADONAI. (CJB)

Leviticus 19:34 “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the YHWH your Elohim.” (AENT)

Deuteronomy 10:18 “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (AENT)

So, obviously this is not a "new commandment”; it is simply the first time that Y'shua gave this particular teaching to his apostles.

2 John 1: 5 And now, dear lady, I am requesting that we love one another - not as if this were a new command I am writing you, for it is the one which we have had from the beginning.  6 Moreover, love is this: that we should live according to his commands. This is the command, as you people have heard from the beginning; live by it!  (CJB)

WHAT was “from the beginning?” TORAH! Look at the following passage where we see the Apostle John making an even clearer statement on how “new commandments” are actually ancient ones:

1 John 2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command. On the contrary, it is an old command, which you have had from the beginning; the old command is the message which you have heard before. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command, and its reality is seen both in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. (CJB)

As you can see, these commandments have been with us from the beginning, but their highest and truest understanding has come through Mashiyach, the light of the world!

John 1:5, 17: “In him (Y'shua) was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it…For the Torah was given through Moshe, and grace and truth came through Y'shua the Mashiyach.” (AENT)

1 John 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him - none! (CJB)

2 Corinthians 4:6 “For Elohim, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of Elohim in the face of Mashiyach.” (AENT)

Ephesians 3: 8 To me, the least important of all God's holy people, was given this privilege of announcing to the Gentiles the Good News of the Messiah's unfathomable riches, 9 and of letting everyone see how this secret plan is going to work out. This plan, kept hidden for ages by God, the Creator of everything, 10 is for the rulers and authorities in heaven to learn, through the existence of the Messianic Community, how many-sided God's wisdom is.

11 This accords with God's age-old purpose, accomplished in the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. 12 In union with him, through his faithfulness, we have boldness and confidence when we approach God. 13 So I ask you not to be discouraged by the troubles I endure on your behalf - it is all for your glory. 14 For this reason, I fall on my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its character.  (CJB)

I rest my case: NO “new commandment!”