John 15:17 (DBY)

Passage

These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Nearby Context

John 15:15 I call you no longer bondmen, for the bondman does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have set you that ye should go and [that] ye should bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you.

John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

John 15:18 If the world hate you, know that it has hated me before you.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on account of this the world hates you.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "things", "command", "love", and "another". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "things" and "command", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "Ye have not chosen me but I..." into verse 18's "If the world hate you know that...", so "things" and "command" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "things" and "command" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.