Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
(John
15:13 NIV).
This
is the highest kind of love, a self-giving love for others above
one’s own self-interest. Jesus demonstrated it to an ultimate
degree at Calvary, and we should get ready to follow in his steps.
(Through the Year with Jimmy Carter, page 243).
Self-preservation
is a strong drive in most all of us until the very end when suffering
lethal affliction or unbearable pain we prefer death. But up until
that point most of us are fighters for the continuance of our lives.
Thus we come to John 15:13; in view of our commitment and drive for
self-preservation, it shows special if not rare love when we are
willing to give up our lives for our friends. The archetypal visual
epitomizing this is the mother cradling her child against impending
threats—“Kill me” the visual says, “just let my child live
on.”
Thus
we see that for ultimate commitment a greater love is essential.
Intellectual and legal commitment are simply not enough, there must
be the total commitment that comes with emotional and spiritual
commitment—a commitment so ingrained that it reacts reflexively for
the welfare of others in all matters great and small. Jesus said,
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love
one another” (John 13:35 NIV). That is, the peculiar nature of
love manifests itself in multiple practical effects this side of the
final act of literally dying for another. These practical effects
can span a wide spectrum from heart-felt sympathy to civil respect to
tough love. All such manifestations encompass the paradox that the
greatest self-love in factual truth must evidence unqualified love
for others. This paradox lies at the core of Christian grace and is
made evident in good works deriving from carefully cultivated
instincts and the empowering support of the Godhead.
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