Why is there no greater love than to lay down your life (John 15:13)?

Such was His love that He could lay down His life for His friends. Here His death is not viewed in its atoning character, which could be no pattern for us, but as the highest expression of love for one's friends. It has been truly said that in these verses there "is condensed a whole history of love in the love of the Father to the Son, the love of Jesus to His people, the love of His people to one another; each stage being both the source and the standard for the next."

Now if His life had been the continual expression of this love, His death was still more so. He could not have greater love than to die for them. We must notice here that it is not the love of God to poor sinners, a love purely divine and sovereign, but the love of Christ for His friends. Neither is it Christ, who is here the Friend, but the disciples who are His friends, those in whom He has confidence: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." We communicate to a friend all that we have upon the heart, because we count upon the interest he bears to us. Christ had communicated to the disciples all that He had heard from the Father. There is the action of the human mediator, the vine with the branches. It is important to remark that He does not here place His disciples in His own relationship with the Father - that will be developed later on - but He communicated to them as from Himself all that He enjoyed. The relationship was with Himself, as He personally had been in it with the Father down here. It is in this relationship of intimacy in which He was with them, faithful in keeping His words, that He looks upon them when He lays down His life for them.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). This is entirely a different thing to laying down His life for sinners; here it is for His friends; it is the intenseness of His love; I sacrifice Myself for him. He does not say, I am your Friend, but we are His friends, He was the Friend of sinners, when He gave His life for them. We are His friends when we enjoy His confidence. He is showing how we walk in and keep the place of friends, He has treated them as friends. If I have a friend I tell him what is in my mind that is not concerning him at all. I impart all my thoughts to one who is my friend. The obedient one is the depositary of Jesus' thoughts. God told Abraham the things that concerned Sodom. And Abraham was called "The Friend of God" (James 2:23). The Lord always treated His disciples according to the place they were brought into; that is, as possessing it all. He speaks to His disciples as in possession of the things, though they had not realized them in the least. This was their own stupidity. Here the Lord comes to the source and certainty of grace in order that the practical responsibility under which He puts them should not cloud: for they were there. He had put them in the place of "friends," so He says, "If you want to walk in the place that is the way"; "ye are My friends, if ye do whatever I command you." He had chosen them for this.

Greater love none has than to lay down his life for his friends. The love of God in Jesus went infinitely beyond this; but then necessarily it stands alone, and it is meet that it should. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, as we are taught elsewhere. But where is the worth of such a theory if we fail in everyday going out of heart to common wants and sufferings of God's children (1 John 3:17-18)? The Lord at once binds love up with obedience, without which it is but self-pleasing, not having Him in it or before the soul. "Ye are My friends if ye do what (ever) I command you." It is not reconciling enemies He speaks of, but why He calls us His friends. Obedience is the character and condition. Nor does He here indicate how He stood as our friend when we were enemies, but He calls us His friends if we practise what He enjoins on His disciples.291

Friends. — Now the disciples are reminded of the new commandment of 13:34 — told to love one another as Christ had loved them (John 15:12). And again it is mentioned in this chapter (17) — a needful admonition in the prospect of the Lord's near departure. And the limit to which it could be extended is here stated, even to the surrender to death of the individual for his brother's welfare. Of this John reminds us elsewhere (1 John 3:16). But if that be the full proof of the love, who has exhibited it? We know. And it is stated now, and reiterated in that passage of the Epistle just referred to. The Lord has furnished its full proof in laying down His life for His friends. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). All will admit the truth of this statement. But friends! Who are friends of Christ? The disciples were now to hear. They were His friends. He who died the Just for the unjust, died also for His friends. His friends! How should such be known? Two characteristics would mark them out. 1st, "Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." And 2nd, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you" (14, 15). Into the intimacy of friends had He admitted them, making known all things that He had heard of His Father. He had kept back nothing. And what brought them into such intimacy with Christ He states. "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you" (15, 16). A person on earth chooses his friends. Christ has chosen His. And since one mark of His friends is obedience to His commands, He again reminds them of the command to love one another (17).

He was layingHis life for them, — His friends: how could they have greater proof that such they were indeed? Friends! and no longer servants: no more did He call them that: for, instead of mere messages of their duty, He had been opening to them all the truth as to those purposes of the Father with which He had been entrusted. And such is Scripture for us now: with a length and breadth and depth and height in it which befits such a communication from the Father to the Son as that of which the Son here speaks.

Having spoken of His commandments, now in verse 12 He shows that love is the very essence of His commandment, love that willingly relinquishes its own rights and comfort for the sake of the blessing of others. His love to us is its measure. None can be greater, for the next morning He would be on the cross, to lay down His life for those whom He calls friends. What a Friend indeed He was to them! Yet also, all who obey His commandments are His friends, that is, of course, those who give Him the supreme place of authority in true reality. In them only divine life is operative. Mere outward lip-service, as in Judas, was not enough.

Human love has its limit, as verse 13 states; but the Lord teaches His disciples to regard each other as friends because they are each and all His friends, as being marked by obedience to His commands. He was indeed going forth to lay down His life for them, but in Him was found a love which far exceeded all that was known among men. His love and not mere human love was to stamp its character on their love, one for the other.

If the sheep of Christ receive divine life, salvation, liberty, nourishment, peace and security, and have the privileges of nearness and intimacy with Christ, hearing His voice and following Him; there is something more for those who are thus blessed of God, for the Lord Jesus speaks of them as His friends, saying to His disciples, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). This is not exactly the love spoken of in Romans 5:5–10, the sovereign love of God for His enemies; it is the complacent love of Christ for those in whom He finds delight, for He adds here, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Obedience to Christ’s commandments, which are not grievous, is the evidence that we are His friends.

(Vv. 12, 13). Thirdly the new company is characterized by love. It is not only loved, but is a company that loves, for this is the Lord's command, "That ye love one another as I have loved you." This love is not to be after a human pattern, which oft-times is a selfish love; but a love that has no less standard than the Lord's love to us, a love in which there is nothing of self, for the Lord can say, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Here death is viewed, not in its atoning character, but, as the supreme expression of love. Earthly love is often drawn out by something in its object that is lovable. Divine love rises above all our weaknesses and failures and loves in spite of so much that is unlovely. Such is the love of Christ, and such is the love that we should cherish toward one another. A love that is not indifferent to failures and blemishes, but, rising above all that is unlovely, serves its object even to making the greatest possible sacrifice — the laying down of life for a friend. As one has said. "No greater proof of love can be given; no higher standard set."