“Greater has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13
When looking at this verse, it is easy to say that you would sacrifice yourself to save a friend’s life. If the time happened that you could save your friend with your own life on the line, would you? Would you lay down all of your desires, possessions, and many other things for your friends? If you answered yes to those questions, then follow with me in a minute.
However if you answered no, what are the things that are holding you back from having that kind of love? Is the friendship just surface level? Is it only visible in the good times? I ask you to look for the friendships that are full of love for each other, and those that are with you through the good and bad times. This isn’t solely them, it is mutual. You have to be that kind of friend for them too. The kind of friendship that you know you would be willing to die for.
Now if you answered yes to those questions, then what if that verse meant more than being ready to lay down your life for your friends? What if this verse meant that you would lay down your life daily in service for your friends?
When a person serves another, they are willing to sacrifice what they have for the other. This could be anything. (desires, time, energy, possessions) When you serve someone else, you are giving up at least one of those things when you do so. Sometimes this is very hard. Sometimes the person you are serving doesn’t even say thank you for what you did. It will hard. There will be easy days, and at the same time there will be hard days. But when the verse says, “that someone lay down his life for his friends”, this means that they are exposing themselves for the use of others. They are willing to put themselves on the line to serve others.
In Acts 2 there is a great example of this. In verses 42-47 it says,
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
These believers devoted themselves to the Word, and they made sure that all who were in need were taken care of. They had works of service to show for their faith that they had in Christ and they displayed Christ through their actions they showed to others. These people laid down their lives for each other because they weren’t afraid to sacrifice what they had for the glory and growth of the kingdom of heaven.
Now on top of being willing to die for others, I encourage you to start having a mindset that you are willing to sacrifice your daily lives for others. All of this is for the glory of the Kingdom of God. I think that when this happens, community will be true and it will be a beautiful thing.
