The Farewell Discourse

180:1.1Af­ter a few mo­ments of in­for­mal con­ver­sa­tion, Je­sus stood up and said: “When I en­acted for you a para­ble in­di­cat­ing how you should be will­ing to serve one an­other, I said that I de­sired to give you a new com­mand­ment; and I would do this now as I am about to leave you. You well know the com­mand­ment which di­rects that you love one an­other; that you love your neigh­bor even as your­self. But I am not wholly sat­is­fied with even that sin­cere de­vo­tion on the part of my chil­dren. I would have you per­form still greater acts of love in the king­dom of the be­liev­ing broth­er­hood. And so I give you this new com­mand­ment: That you love one an­other even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my dis­ci­ples if you thus love one an­other.

180:1.2“When I give you this new com­mand­ment, I do not place any new bur­den upon your souls; rather do I bring you new joy and make it pos­si­ble for you to ex­pe­ri­ence new plea­sure in know­ing the de­lights of the be­stowal of your heart’s af­fec­tion upon your fel­low men. I am about to ex­pe­ri­ence the su­preme joy, even though en­dur­ing out­ward sor­row, in the be­stowal of my af­fec­tion upon you and your fel­low mor­tals.

180:1.3“When I in­vite you to love one an­other, even as I have loved you, I hold up be­fore you the su­preme mea­sure of true af­fec­tion, for greater love can no man have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends; you will con­tinue to be my friends if you are but will­ing to do what I have taught you. You have called me Mas­ter, but I do not call you ser­vants. If you will only love one an­other as I am lov­ing you, you shall be my friends, and I will ever speak to you of that which the Fa­ther re­veals to me.

180:1.4“You have not merely cho­sen me, but I have also cho­sen you, and I have or­dained you to go forth into the world to yield the fruit of lov­ing ser­vice to your fel­lows even as I have lived among you and re­vealed the Fa­ther to you. The Fa­ther and I will both work with you, and you shall ex­pe­ri­ence the di­vine full­ness of joy if you will only obey my com­mand to love one an­other, even as I have loved you.”

180:1.5If you would share the Mas­ter’s joy, you must share his love. And to share his love means that you have shared his ser­vice. Such an ex­pe­ri­ence of love does not de­liver you from the dif­fi­cul­ties of this world; it does not cre­ate a new world, but it most cer­tainly does make the old world new.

180:1.6Keep in mind: It is loy­alty, not sac­ri­fice, that Je­sus de­mands. The con­scious­ness of sac­ri­fice im­plies the ab­sence of that whole­hearted af­fec­tion which would have made such a lov­ing ser­vice a su­preme joy. The idea of duty sig­ni­fies that you are ser­vant-minded and hence are miss­ing the mighty thrill of do­ing your ser­vice as a friend and for a friend. The im­pulse of friend­ship tran­scends all con­vic­tions of duty, and the ser­vice of a friend for a friend can never be called a sac­ri­fice. The Mas­ter has taught the apos­tles that they are the sons of God. He has called them breth­ren, and now, be­fore he leaves, he calls them his friends.