Greater Love Has No One Than This

2/6/2001

I think that I’ve read this before and I remember being struck by it before. But in my hunger tonight, it came even more alive. The verse in John 15 where Jesus said: “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 friend. You are My friends, if you do what I command you.”

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his “life” for his friend.”

In the Greek, life has three different meanings: (excerpted from the Discovery Bible)

1—(bios) the period of duration of earthly life; the means by which life is sustained; the manner in which life is spent (physical life)

2-(zoë) the inextinguishable and indestructible quality that is self-existent in God and shared with animate creation God’s gift to man animating him both physically and spiritually and making him an eternal being; “the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God” (spirit life)

3-(psuche) the point of contact between man’s bodily and spiritual nature; the inner life of man, equivalent to the ego, personality; man’s individual distinctiveness and identity before God (emotion or soul life).

I know we have a sense of “laying our lives down for one another”. But it is striking to see it this way if you haven’t already. He says: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his imaginations, fears, ambitions, pride, lust, insecurities……. Lay down all the emotions and lies that threaten to consume you from day to day. Lay down your individual pride and independence and identity separate from Christ and His Inseparable Body. Lay down the things that keep you from loving one another. Give up the feelings, desires, affections and aversions! There’s no greater love than to lay all those things aside.” He even prefaced it by saying, “This is My commandment to love one another, just like I loved you because you are my friends. This is what friends do, they lay down their “emotion-soul” based lives for one another. So do this for each other. I’ve done it for you. There is no greater love than this.”

-mg