# The Love That Jesus Commands - Bishop Barron Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 12 Oct 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75633276/the_love_that_jesus_commands_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, on this fifth Sunday of Easter,
[0:03] Speaker 1: we have an extraordinary gospel. Again, like last week, it's
[0:08] Speaker 1: very short, it's very punchy, but it is at the
[0:11] Speaker 1: heart of the Christian thing. It's the beginning of Jesus'
[0:16] Speaker 1: Last Supper discourse, which is the longest discourse of Jesus
[0:19] Speaker 1: anywhere in the New Testament. It's this lengthy, spiritually incredibly
[0:25] Speaker 1: rich monologue he gives. the night before he dies. And
[0:29] Speaker 1: this really is the very beginning of it. Here's a
[0:32] Speaker 1: little bit of what he says. My children, I'll be
[0:35] Speaker 1: with you only a little while longer. And that's true.
[0:37] Speaker 1: It's the night before he dies. So it's like a
[0:39] Speaker 1: last will and testament, if you want. It's Jesus now
[0:43] Speaker 1: speaking to us the end of his life. As I
[0:46] Speaker 1: have loved you, so you should also love one another.
[0:50] Speaker 1: This is how all will know that you are my disciples.
[0:54] Speaker 1: If you have love for one another. Okay, I know
[0:59] Speaker 1: you're likely to think, yeah, I've heard that like a
[1:02] Speaker 1: hundred times before. It seems almost a banality. No, no.
[1:08] Speaker 1: To understand Jesus here, we have to understand what a
[1:11] Speaker 1: strange thing love is, the way the word is being
[1:16] Speaker 1: used here. I think of Dostoevsky's great line that authentic
[1:21] Speaker 1: love is a harsh and dreadful thing. If you take
[1:25] Speaker 1: this in some sentimentalized way or just stating a sort
[1:29] Speaker 1: of psychological banality, you've not read it right. You've not
[1:33] Speaker 1: understood it. Not far from my house, there's a Unitarian church,
[1:39] Speaker 1: and I go by it a lot because I walk
[1:42] Speaker 1: or I go by it in the car. And outside,
[1:44] Speaker 1: there's a big sign, and it says, love your neighbor, right?
[1:49] Speaker 1: And the next to neighbor is a little asterisk that
[1:52] Speaker 1: draws your attention down, and it says, you're black neighbor,
[1:55] Speaker 1: your brown neighbor, your gay neighbor, your transgender neighbor, your
[2:00] Speaker 1: bisexual neighbor, and it goes through this list. So I
[2:03] Speaker 1: go by that sign all the time. And every time
[2:05] Speaker 1: I do, I think, okay, I get it. But what
[2:10] Speaker 1: precisely do you mean by love? Love your neighbor. Right.
[2:16] Speaker 1: And all those people mentioned, yeah. But tell me precisely
[2:21] Speaker 1: what you mean by love, because the suspicion I have
[2:24] Speaker 1: is it might be something different than what Jesus is
[2:28] Speaker 1: talking about here. Now, this is kind of a well-worn path,
[2:32] Speaker 1: but the English language, which is very rich and comparably rich, really,
[2:39] Speaker 1: and the vocabulary of English is extraordinary. Nevertheless, there's a
[2:43] Speaker 1: real poverty in English in regard to this little word, love.
[2:49] Speaker 1: Because we use that one word, love, to cover such
[2:54] Speaker 1: a variety of things. And so a lot of ambiguity
[2:59] Speaker 1: sets in when English language users begin talking about love.
[3:04] Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. We use the same word.
[3:07] Speaker 1: to say, I love popcorn. I love my grandmother. I
[3:14] Speaker 1: love God. I love going to the Cubs game. All
[3:18] Speaker 1: of those things, and they couldn't be more different. And
[3:23] Speaker 1: the texture of the experience in each one is so different,
[3:28] Speaker 1: yet we use the same word, love. So Jesus says,
[3:32] Speaker 1: love one another. All right, well, what do you mean
[3:36] Speaker 1: by that? Well, see, the Greek of the New Testament
[3:42] Speaker 1: is actually far richer here because the Greek of the
[3:45] Speaker 1: New Testament includes a variety of words, all of which
[3:49] Speaker 1: are translated love in English, but mean very different things.
[3:54] Speaker 1: And I want to just review this with you because
[3:56] Speaker 1: I think it's very clarifying when it comes to this
[4:00] Speaker 1: central command of Jesus. Here are the three words I'm
[4:04] Speaker 1: talking about in Greek. Eros, philia, and agape. Eros, philia,
[4:14] Speaker 1: and agape. All of those are translated as love, but
[4:20] Speaker 1: they mean very different things. Okay, what does eros mean? Well,
[4:27] Speaker 1: because our word erotic is derived from that. I would
[4:32] Speaker 1: say something like this. It means a passionate love. intense
[4:38] Speaker 1: desire for something or for someone. And so you see
[4:43] Speaker 1: the obvious sexual overtone of erotic desire. It's a desire
[4:48] Speaker 1: to have or to possess. It's intense. It drives you
[4:54] Speaker 1: toward the possession of a thing or or a person. Now,
[4:59] Speaker 1: mind you, I'm not bad-mouthing the erotic. I mean, let's
[5:02] Speaker 1: face it, none of us would be here unless there
[5:04] Speaker 1: were something like erotic desire. None of us would be
[5:07] Speaker 1: alive unless we had something like this for food and drink.
[5:11] Speaker 1: It's an intense, passionate drive. I mentioned I love popcorn, right?
[5:19] Speaker 1: We'll say that in English. The other night, I love popcorn.
[5:25] Speaker 1: And I might take it as like a midnight snack.
[5:28] Speaker 1: But what I usually do is I'll take it like
[5:30] Speaker 1: a small bowl to make sure I only take a
[5:32] Speaker 1: limited amount of popcorn. Well, the other night, the bag
[5:36] Speaker 1: was right toward the bottom. I thought, oh, there's just
[5:38] Speaker 1: a little bit left. I'll take the bag down with me.
[5:41] Speaker 1: So I'm watching TV. And I don't know what, I
[5:43] Speaker 1: must have been exceptionally hungry. And I just devoured this popcorn.
[5:49] Speaker 1: I finished it. And then I got up to... The bathroom,
[5:53] Speaker 1: I look at myself in the mirror, and I've got
[5:55] Speaker 1: kernels of popcorn on my face. I've got bits of
[5:58] Speaker 1: it on my shirt. I thought, you're like a heroin addict.
[6:02] Speaker 1: This is like, you're addicted to this thing. And it's true.
[6:07] Speaker 1: I have that kind of, I just love it. I
[6:09] Speaker 1: love popcorn. If it were as dangerous as heroin, I'd
[6:13] Speaker 1: be in some serious trouble, you know? Well, that's what
[6:16] Speaker 1: Eros is like. It's this passionate desire for something or
[6:20] Speaker 1: for someone. Okay, now the second word, philia. Think of Philadelphia, right?
[6:27] Speaker 1: The city of brotherly love, we say. Well, philia in
[6:31] Speaker 1: Greek has a sense of friendship. It's the affection between friends.
[6:38] Speaker 1: Think when you say, I like that guy. Yeah, she's great.
[6:42] Speaker 1: I really like her a lot. She's someone I want
[6:44] Speaker 1: to spend time with. That guy, he's like my buddy.
[6:48] Speaker 1: I like spending time with him. That's Philea. Now, you
[6:53] Speaker 1: might say, you know, it's less self-interested than Eros. Eros
[6:57] Speaker 1: has that sense of an animal passion for food, for drink,
[7:00] Speaker 1: for sex, to possess the other. Well, Philea isn't really
[7:04] Speaker 1: like that. Philea is like, no, you're my friend. I
[7:08] Speaker 1: want to be with you. Not so much I want
[7:10] Speaker 1: to possess you. I want to be with you. I
[7:13] Speaker 1: want to spend time with you. Well, Jesus is not
[7:19] Speaker 1: saying to his disciples, I want you to have eros
[7:23] Speaker 1: for one another. I hope that's pretty clear. He's not
[7:27] Speaker 1: urging them. You must love one another in that erotic sense.
[7:31] Speaker 1: Nor is he saying in the Greek that's used there,
[7:34] Speaker 1: I want you to have philia for one another. See,
[7:37] Speaker 1: that would mean I want you all to be friends.
[7:42] Speaker 1: So Peter and James and John and all of you,
[7:45] Speaker 1: I want you all to be friends. I think there's
[7:49] Speaker 1: a very good chance that The disciples, some of them,
[7:52] Speaker 1: didn't get along with other disciples. They're all following Jesus.
[7:58] Speaker 1: They're all chosen by the Lord. But did it mean
[8:00] Speaker 1: they all liked each other? That they all would happily
[8:03] Speaker 1: spend time together? Not necessarily. And he's not commanding that.
[8:09] Speaker 1: I want you all to be friends. Nor is he
[8:12] Speaker 1: telling his followers down through the centuries, you have to
[8:15] Speaker 1: be friends with everybody. No, no, that's not what he says.
[8:21] Speaker 1: The verb that's used, and now the distinction I hope
[8:24] Speaker 1: becomes clear, not eros, not philia. The verb used here,
[8:29] Speaker 1: the noun rather, is agape. Agape. Translated love, indeed, like
[8:36] Speaker 1: the other ones. But what does it mean? You probably
[8:39] Speaker 1: heard me talk a lot about Thomas Aquinas' famous characterization.
[8:44] Speaker 1: He would have called it caritas in his Latin. To
[8:48] Speaker 1: will the good of the other. to will the good
[8:55] Speaker 1: of the other. That's agape. And that's the command that
[9:01] Speaker 1: Jesus gives to his disciples and to us. That's how
[9:07] Speaker 1: people will know that you're my follower, that you have
[9:09] Speaker 1: agape for one another. You will the good of each other.
[9:16] Speaker 1: Mind you, it's not a desire to possess, that's eros,
[9:20] Speaker 1: nor is it a desire... to spend time with. That's philia.
[9:26] Speaker 1: It's a desire for the good of the other. Therefore,
[9:30] Speaker 1: it's a self-sacrificing move. Maybe this way, it's commitment to
[9:38] Speaker 1: the other. That's agape. We're so good, we sinners, at
[9:47] Speaker 1: getting around these things. What do we end up saying
[9:50] Speaker 1: very often? What do we act out very often? I
[9:54] Speaker 1: pretend I'm willing your good, but in fact, I'm desiring
[9:59] Speaker 1: what's good for you that you might then give me
[10:02] Speaker 1: something good in return. I'll be just or kind to
[10:06] Speaker 1: you that you might be just or kind to me.
[10:08] Speaker 1: That's not agape. That's not willing the good of the other.
[10:13] Speaker 1: That's just using the other for my own good. Agape Love,
[10:20] Speaker 1: as Jesus commands it, is breaking free of the black
[10:25] Speaker 1: hole of one's own egotism. Right, fellow sinners? That draws
[10:32] Speaker 1: the whole world into me and my preoccupations. Jesus is saying,
[10:37] Speaker 1: I want you to have this quality that breaks free
[10:39] Speaker 1: of that. That's love as he's commanding it. Can I
[10:47] Speaker 1: give you a concrete example here? One of the great
[10:49] Speaker 1: saints of the 20th century, Maximilian Kolbe, right? The man
[10:53] Speaker 1: who famously gave himself in exchange for a man that
[10:58] Speaker 1: the Nazis were going to kill. He said, take me instead.
[11:02] Speaker 1: I'm a Catholic priest. Take me in his place. And
[11:05] Speaker 1: the Nazis did, and they starved him to death, which
[11:08] Speaker 1: was one of the worst ways to die. Did Maximilian
[11:13] Speaker 1: Kolbe know the man very well? I don't think so.
[11:19] Speaker 1: Was he his friend? Did he have philia toward him?
[11:22] Speaker 1: Did he want to spend time with him? I mean,
[11:24] Speaker 1: I don't know is my honest answer. I don't think
[11:27] Speaker 1: there's any evidence of that. But Kolbe shows in the
[11:33] Speaker 1: most dramatic way possible agape, a self-forgetting, self-sacrificing, willing the
[11:44] Speaker 1: good of the other. That's what Jesus is talking about.
[11:50] Speaker 1: Not eros, not philia, nothing wrong with those two things,
[11:53] Speaker 1: but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about
[11:56] Speaker 1: this kind of self-surrendering love. You know, a great biblical
[12:02] Speaker 1: place to look if you want to follow up from
[12:05] Speaker 1: this sermon is Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. You
[12:08] Speaker 1: probably heard it read at a wedding at some point
[12:11] Speaker 1: in your life. But listen to Paul, because Paul here
[12:14] Speaker 1: is not talking about eros and not talking about philia.
[12:17] Speaker 1: He's talking about agape. And it's rendered love, of course,
[12:21] Speaker 1: in English. But listen to him. Love, agape, is patient. Now, see,
[12:27] Speaker 1: why patient? Well, because it's not interested in its own good.
[12:30] Speaker 1: It's interested in the good of the other. And therefore,
[12:33] Speaker 1: it's going to bear all things. It's going to put
[12:36] Speaker 1: up with everything because it wants the good of the other.
[12:38] Speaker 1: Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant. Why? Because
[12:42] Speaker 1: it's taking you out of the ego and its preoccupations.
[12:46] Speaker 1: It positively wants what's good for you. Love does not
[12:52] Speaker 1: insist on its own way. See, that's the mark. of egotism.
[12:56] Speaker 1: You might say it's the mark of the erotic form
[12:59] Speaker 1: of love, too. It's, I want this for me. I
[13:01] Speaker 1: want to possess it. Love doesn't. Agape doesn't do that.
[13:05] Speaker 1: It doesn't insist on its own way. Listen, it does
[13:08] Speaker 1: not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. See,
[13:12] Speaker 1: if you're just all about yourself, well, you might rejoice
[13:15] Speaker 1: in wrongdoing because doing the wrong thing might benefit me, right?
[13:19] Speaker 1: But real love cares for the good of the other. Therefore,
[13:22] Speaker 1: it's not interested in wrongdoing. It rejoices in the truth
[13:26] Speaker 1: and then beautifully. It bears all things, believes all things,
[13:32] Speaker 1: hopes all things, endures all things. That's not eros. It's
[13:37] Speaker 1: not philia. It's the self-emptying, self-forgetting love of God. of
[13:45] Speaker 1: the other. It's willing the good of the other. And
[13:50] Speaker 1: that's everybody, the command that Jesus gives the night before
[13:55] Speaker 1: he dies. That's how people will know that we are
[13:59] Speaker 1: his disciples. And God bless you.

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