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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Or, as I have loved you: for My love has not been the payment of something owing to you, but had its beginning on My side. And ye ought in like manner to do one another good, though ye may not owe it.
Cyril of Alexandria
He plainly indicates the novelty involved in his command here—and the extent to which the love he enjoins here surpasses the old idea of mutual love—by adding the words "Even as I have loved you, you also should love one another." … The law of Moses mandated the necessity of loving our brothers as ourselves, yet our Lord Jesus the Christ loved us far more than he loved himself. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Since they, having heard this, could naturally become troubled, as people who would be left without help, He comforts them, saying: "Do not grieve, I give you a strong guardian – love; if you have it, then, strengthened by one another, you will be invincible." Then, another might ask: "Lord! …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
And now He teaches them how to fit themselves to follow Him: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. (Levit. 19:18) But does not the old law say, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself? Why then does He call it a new commandment? Is it because it strips us of the old man, and puts on us the new? That it renews the hearer, or rather the doer of it? Love does do this; but it is that love which our Lord distinguishes from the carnal affection: As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. …
Thomas Aquinas
Then, he teaches them how they can become fit to follow him: a new commandment I give to you. First, he mentions the special character of this commandment; secondly, he shows why they should live up to it (v 35). As to the first he does three things: first, he mentions a feature of this commandment, secondly, its meaning; and thirdly, its standard. The feature of this commandment he emphasizes is its newness. Thus he says, a new commandment. But did not the Old Testament or Law have a commandment about the love of one's neighbor? …
Bonaventure
A new commandment I give unto you. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the instruction of the imperfect disciples. And because they were imperfect, the Lord gives them the remedy of love, that they might love and sustain one another mutually: on account of which he says: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: therefore new, because it ought always to be fresh in the heart, because love is always owed and never grows old. …
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