The New Commandment refers to the admonition given by Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 to His Twelve Apostles at the Last Supper

Last Supper

The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...

, as recorded in the Gospel of John

Gospel of John

The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...

 :
According to the Synoptic Gospels

Synoptic Gospels

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...

, a similar thought was expressed by Jesus two days previously when He spoke at the Temple in Jerusalem

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

 and quoted what is generally called the Shema ("...love the LORD thy God...") and the Second greatest commandment ("...love thy neighbour as thyself..."). In response to a lawyer's question, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?", Jesus answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 and the prophets" (Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 , parallels are and , see also Mark 12

Mark 12

Mark 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Continuing Jesus' teaching in Jerusalem on what is traditionally celebrated as Holy Tuesday, it contains the parable of The Wicked Husbandmen, Jesus' argument with the Pharisees and Herodians over...

 and the Didache

Didache

The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...

).

The "New Commandment", the Wycliffe Bible Commentary states, "was new in that the love was to be exercised toward others not because they belonged to the same nation, but because they belonged to Christ...and the love of Christ which the disciples had seen...would be a testimony to the world".

One of the novelties introduced by this commandment — perhaps justifying its designation as New — is that Jesus introduces himself as a standard for love. The usual criterion was "as you love yourself", as in the Ethic of Reciprocity

Ethic of reciprocity

The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code, or moralitythat essentially states either of the following:* : One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself....

, whereas this precept commands "as I have loved you", in which Jesus cites himself as the model.

See also

• Biblical law in Christianity
  Biblical law in Christianity
  Christian views of the Old Covenant have been central to Christian theology and practice since the circumcision controversy in Early Christianity. There are differing views about the applicability of the Old Covenant among Christian denominations...
  
  
• Brotherly love (philosophy)
  Brotherly love (philosophy)
  Brotherly love in the biblical sense is an extension of the natural affection associated with near kin, toward the greater community of fellow believers, that goes beyond the mere duty in to "love thy neighbour as thyself", and shows itself as "unfeigned love" from a "pure heart", that extends an...
  
  
• Disciple (Christianity)
  Disciple (Christianity)
  In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
  
  
• Expounding of the Law
  Expounding of the Law
  The Expounding of the Law is a highly structured part of the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament...
  
  
• Ministry of Jesus
  Ministry of Jesus
  In the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
  
  
• New Covenant
  New Covenant
  The New Covenant is a concept originally derived from the Hebrew Bible. The term "New Covenant" is used in the Bible to refer to an epochal relationship of restoration and peace following a period of trial and judgment...
  
  
• Supersessionism
  Supersessionism
  Supersessionism is a term for the dominant Christian view of the Old Covenant, also called fulfillment theology and replacement theology, though the latter term is disputed...
  
  
• Ten Commandments
  Ten Commandments
  The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
  
  
• The Law of Christ
  The Law of Christ
  "The law of Christ" is a biblical phrase of uncertain meaning, found only in the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Galatians verse and parenthetically in 1 Corinthians of the New Testament....