Read John 15:9–17
‘My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ (vv12–13)
Knowing we are loved and being commanded to love others is one thing, but knowing what that truly looks like is another.
There are many ways love can be demonstrated, in word and deed: both are important – in fact essential – if our lives are to be authentic reflections of the God who first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Yet in our scripture reading today, Jesus points to the supreme act of love He was about to demonstrate when He said to His disciples, ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (v13).
Referring to His imminent, selfless, loving act on the cross, Jesus would go on to demonstrate what true, unconditional, sacrificial love looked like, by offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sin.
Romans chapter 3, verse 25 tells us, ‘God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith.’
Sacrificial love always has the ‘other’ in mind; the greater good, the bigger picture.
As loved Christ-followers today, if we need an example of what sacrificial love truly looks like, we need look no farther than the cross. The chorus says:
Such love, pure as the whitest snow, Such love, weeps for the shame I know, Such love, paying the debt I owe, O Jesus, such love.
A PRAYER TO MAKE:
‘Lord, thank You for the cross, for showing us what true sacrificial love looks like. Amen.’
AN ACTION TO TAKE:
Think about the sacrificial love of Christ for you. How might we give ourselves
to others to model this love?
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER:
Psalm 13:1–6; Psalm 33:1–22; Rom. 3:21–26; Heb. 7:11–28
Photo by agilemktg1 on flickr
