“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:12-14
Jesus commands us in these verses to love each other as He loves us. That is a high calling! Then He continues to say that the greatest love we can show is to lay down our lives for our friends. He loves us so much that that is precisely what He did for us….He laid down His life for us so that we may have life. I love the words to the song Lead Me To The Cross:
Lead me to the cross,
Where Your love poured out.
Bring me to my knees,
Lord I lay me down.
Rid me of myself
I belong to You.
Lead me, lead me to the cross.
Christ poured out His love for us on the cross. He commands us, if we are to be His followers, His disciples, to lay down our lives for Him. If we are His friend, we will do just as He commands. We will give up our selfish, prideful selves to gain life in Him. If we do not lay down our lives and turn all control over to Him, how can we say that we love Jesus just as He loves us? If we cannot or will not turn our lives entirely over to Him, we will never know true love. If we do not know God, we do not know Love. Because God is Love (1 John 4:8). The two cannot truly exist apart from one another. We cannot love others the way Jesus calls us to love if we do not know Him and love Him. It is sacrificial love. Have you laid down your life for Christ? If you have not, you do not know what love He is speaking of. You have never experienced the greatest, most freeing love imaginable. If you have laid down your life for Him and denied yourself to follow hard after Him above everything else, you are experiencing the most amazing love there is: a deep, undying love for Jesus. Love that will literally bring you to your knees!
Heavenly Father, bring us to our knees and teach us to love just as you love us! May we experience true Love, which cannot exist apart from You because You are Love. Thank you for showing us what real love is through Your Son Jesus, who laid down His life for us. Thank You for being madly in love with us and desiring us to be madly in love with You! And Lord, once we fall head over heals in love with You, teach us to love others with the same sacrificial love. We love you. Amen.
