Gr. agapaō; see on Matt. 5:43, 44. The command reads literally, “keep on loving.”

 The command to love was not in itself new. It belonged to the instructions given by the Lord through Moses (Lev. 19:18). The injunction is found also in the Mishnah: “Be thou of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, [be thou] one who loveth [one’s fellow-]creatures and bringeth them nigh to the Torah” (Aboth 1. 12, Soncino ed. of the Talmud, p. 8). The command was new in that a new demonstration had been given of love, which the disciples were now bidden to emulate. By His revelation of His Father’s character Jesus had opened to men a new concept of the love of God. The new command enjoined men to preserve the same relationship with one another that Jesus had cultivated with them and mankind generally. Where the old commandment enjoined men to love their neighbors as themselves, the new urged them to love as Jesus had loved. The new was, in fact, more difficult than the old, but grace for its accomplishment was freely provided.