On the night before His arrest, after washing His disciples' feet, Jesus gave them what He called a new commandment: they were to love one another the way He had loved them. John's Gospel places the words in the upper room, just after Judas left and just before Jesus spoke of going where they could not yet follow—a concrete farewell charge, not a slogan.
A simple fact
In John 13, Jesus first shows love by serving (washing feet), then names love as the mark by which everyone will recognize His disciples. The sequence matters: the command follows an acted example of humble service on the same evening.
Jesus' words
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
— John 13:34 (NIV) · also at wordsofjesus.ai/quote/love-one-another
He adds in the next verse that this mutual love is how the world will know they are His (John 13:35). The "new" measure is not love itself—Leviticus already said love your neighbor—but love patterned on His self-giving love.
Historical backdrop
First-century Judea knew sharp in-group ethics. The Community Rule (1QS) among the Dead Sea Scrolls tells those joining the Qumran community to "love all that God has chosen and hate all that He has rejected," and to love the "children of light" while hating the "children of darkness." That contrast—preserved in the scrolls recovered near Qumran—helps show how radical Jesus' standard sounded: love measured by His own sacrifice, not by who is inside the sect.
Read the Community Rule context in scholarly discussion of the scrolls and Jesus' world at BYU ScholarsArchive: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the World of Jesus, and explore manuscript images via the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
A firsthand encounter
Theresa O., whose account is published on the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), described being swept through a bluish-white tunnel and meeting Jesus. She asked Him if He hated her because she was a drug addict. She reports His answer: "NO. I only want you to know that I love you." When she pleaded for Him not to leave, she says He replied that He would never give her more than she could handle—then she was back in her body.
Presented as she reported it: Theresa O Possible NDE 3989 (NDERF).
Love one another—as He loved you—remains the living mark of His disciples.