Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Why is there no greater love than to lay down your life? All true love involves some kind of sacrifice, as the lover seeks to benefit the loved one. It stands to reason, then, that the greatest love of all would involve a total laying down of one’s life for the loved one. God, who is love, revealed His love for mankind through sacrifice. Another reason why laying down one’s life is considered the greatest love is its counterintuitive nature. Humans tend to prefer taking rather than giving, so instances of selflessness leave us amazed. When a father dives into raging water to rescue his child, when a woman asks the doctor to prioritize her child, or when a soldier falls on a grenade to save his brothers-in-arms, we’re humbled and awed. In the modern concept of love, the focus often gravitates toward self-satisfaction, and in many circles the idea of sacrifice is considered unnecessary or even repugnant. In contrast to our diluted version of love, agape shines brightly. For Christians, the expression of this “greater love” isn’t limited to literally laying down our lives. We don’t have to wait for a grandiose moment of sacrifice to love others as Jesus loves us. Our daily lives should be characterized by selflessness and deference, a denying of ourselves for the good of others. Such displays of love should be common in the body of Christ. In those final hours just prior to His crucifixion on a cruel Roman cross, the Lord Jesus was with those that were his dearest and closest friends. Friends that had given up all to walk with Him; friends that had eaten, slept, and marched with Him for three and a half years; friends that had been given apostolic power to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. And yet these same friends would abandon Him, deny Him, or betray Him in a few brief hours so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophets: “Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me,” for it is written: “I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” Christ was made an offering for sin, the sin of the whole world, but He willingly went to the Cross as a freewill offering of love for his friends who are His Body, the Church. And Christ loved and cherished the Church so dearly that He gave Himself for it: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down His life for His friends.” We are to abide in Him, reflect His love, and to love others in the same way that He loved us. It is only as we experience a deepening love for Jesus and all that He has done for us, that we can begin to allow His love to flow into us and through us to others. And then, in His power and strength, we too may lay down our lives in service to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, in Jesus’ name.
Spiritual Steve 