but I know you [well enough], that you do not have a love for God within you.

Jesus replied, "If God were [truly] your Father you would love me, because I came from God to be here. For I did not come on my own authority, but God sent me.

So, the sisters sent [someone] to Him, saying, "Look, Lord, the person you love [i.e., your dear friend, Lazarus] is sick."

Now it was before the Passover Festival [was to begin] and Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and return to the Father. Those [living] in the world, whom He had loved, and who were His own [disciples], He continued to love [dearly] to the very end [i.e., of His life on earth].

I am giving you a new commandment: love one another. Also you should love one another in the same way that I have loved you.

If you love one another, then everyone will know by [observing] this that you are my disciples."

If you love me, you will obey my commandments.

The person who knows [what] my commandments [are] and obeys them is the one who [truly] loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.

Jesus answered him, "If a person loves me, he will obey my teaching, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him [i.e., in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit].

The person who does not love me will not obey my teaching. And the message you are hearing is not mine, but belongs to the Father, who sent me.

But, in order for the world to know that I love the Father, I am [always] doing what the Father commands me to. Let us get up, and leave here." [i.e., leave the room where they had eaten the Passover meal. See 13:1 with 18:1].

"Just as the Father has loved me, [so] I have also loved you. You should continue to receive [or, respond to] my love. [Note: The next verse tells how this can be done].

If you obey my commandments, [then] you will continue receiving my love; just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and [so] continue receiving His love.

My commandment [to you] is this: You should love one another just as I have loved you.

No one has [any] greater love than to give up his life for his friends.

I command you to do these things so that you will [demonstrate your] love for one another. [Note: Or this may mean that His command was to love one another, as in verse 12].

If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own people. But since you do not belong to the world, for I chose you out of it, that is why the world hates you.

I in them, and you in me, so that they may be completely one. [This is] so the world will know that you sent me and that you love them just as you love me.

And I declared your name to them and I will continue to declare it, so that the love you have for me will be in them [also], and that I [will be] in them."

So, after they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you really love me more than these [other disciples do]?" Peter answered Him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." [Note: Since two different Greek words for "love" are used in this conversation, some scholars see a distinction in their meaning. See Butler, Vol. II, pp. 453-457 for a discussion of these views]. Jesus replied to him, "[Then] feed my lambs."

Jesus asked him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you [really] love me?" Peter answered Him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus replied to him, "[Then] take care of my sheep."

Then Jesus asked him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you [truly] love me?" Peter was sad because Jesus had asked him a third time, "Do you [even] love me?" So, he said to Jesus, "Lord, you know all things. You [surely] know that I love you." Jesus replied to him, "[Then] feed my sheep.