Greater love

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. – John 15.13

And then then there is the pinnacle of love - the epitome of love - the apex of love – the acme of love.

‘Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.’

Clearly we can all see that the statement is true. There is no greater example of love than to give up one’s life because that is the ultimate sacrifice. In the previous verse Jesus told us that we need to love each other with the same love that God loved Him and He loves us.

It is easy enough to say that we would give up our lives for the people we love. ‘I would give up my life in a heartbeat’ we might say. I think most of us really mean it when we say it.

But how does that play out in everyday circumstances? We say we would do something as dramatic as giving up our lives, but how does that affect our lives in the lesser ways of ‘giving up our lives?’

What do I mean?

I am talking about the idea of giving up ‘our lives’ on a regular basis. I am talking about giving up the things we want to do with our lives for the ones we love.

My life might say ‘I really want to see the rugby this afternoon.’ But then our children or our wives or our friends get in a situation where they really need our help. I am not talking about something that can be delayed, but they truly need us during that specific time.

How do we respond when our life is inconvenienced? Are we willing to lay down our life for that few minutes or an hour or two, or is it enough to say ‘I would gladly lay down my life for that person?’

If we are not willing to lay down our lives in these practical little ways I wonder if we would really lay down our lives like Jesus did for us.