A New Command

John 13:34-35 NIV:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I'm wondering why God calls the instructions given here a new commandment. Since the days of the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness, God had been speaking through Moses on love. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 repeats part of the verses quoted above verbatim, which means that really, the wordings of the instructions and commands aren't really so different. What, then, makes the command new?
I believe that the difference between the old and the new testament is the example available for emulation. God's commandment must have been cumbersome and laborious because as many as they were, there was no example to emulate, no presence worth following, no higher inspiration to strive for. Men had no real help, so they had to labour hard to attain God's standards. No wonder man fell so many times. But now, we have an example, an inspiration and a leader to follow and emulate. He has walked the same ground we have walked on, eaten the same food with us, felt the pangs of hunger and thirst, has had to pay tax like normal law-abiding citizen, and faced diverse temptations and trials, and has overcome. His examples and precepts have been noted down and we have been asked to follow his steps. He calls us to walk as he walked, talk as he talked, live as he lived, and love as he loved us. Thaat is the greatest lesson that can be passed down- the lesson of an example worthy of emulation.
Many people hold others to a standard they have not attained themselves, or demand an allegiance from people when they have not declared theirs yet. Christ is the way to follow, whose word matches his walk and who has been proved as a worthy example.
That is what makes our love new. His life has laid down a new standard. Whatever examples we had before have become stale and ineffectual; his life and love is the new levels to aspire to. May his grace grant us the power to live and love just the way Jesus lived and loved. His time of favour is here.