We say, This is a new coat of entirely a new kind. But suppose you see an ordinary coat of new cloth.
There is many a coat like it; still in that sense it is new because it is new cloth. It is in the first sense that this word in verse 34 is used. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you." This love is that which rose beyond and above every littleness and stupidity and failure of His disciples.
Do you seek to love each other as He did and in such a way that it will rise above every pettiness, every bitterness, every hindrance, "As Christ loved you"? Divine love is never thrown back and never changed by the unworthiness of its object. It is superior to everything. It is like a stream whose banks may for some distance be smooth, but when they become crooked and rocky, the same stream flows on and on, unchanged in its course and its quality. Such is His love.
In Peter's case we find a solemn yet blessed lesson that a fall never happens to a Christian without a previous warning and without some dealings from the Lord. If Peter had taken the warning he might not have fallen. May we be of those who know His voice and bow to the washing, knowing the blessed object He has in this action of His love.
F.G. Patterson