John 15:17 (YLT)

Passage

`These things I command you, that ye love one another;

Nearby Context

John 15:15 no more do I call you servants, because the servant hath not known what his lord doth, and you I have called friends, because all things that I heard from my Father, I did make known to you.

John 15:16 `Ye did not choose out me, but I chose out you, and did appoint you, that ye might go away, and might bear fruit, and your fruit might remain, that whatever ye may ask of 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 doth hate you, ye know that it hath hated me before you;

John 15:19 if of the world ye were, the world its own would have been loving, and because of the world ye are not--but I chose out of the world--because of this the world hateth 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 did not choose out me but..." into verse 18's "if the world doth hate you ye...", 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.