John 15:13 Commentary

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)?

Greater love, the Lord Himself has said, has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; and though those few disciples to whom He said these words were His friends, in the day in which He laid down His life for them, we can say, "When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son"… when there was nothing in our hearts toward Him but hatred, not even the shame, the gibbet, the curse, the wrath, the abandonment of God, could quench the love that burned in His heart toward us.

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.

He does not say He is the friend of sinners here; He speaks of their being His friends if they did what He commanded… The true disciple He treats with the confidence of being His friend, otherwise He was betraying the confidence of His Father in telling His secrets. If I go to a person on a matter of business, I merely tell him my business, and have done with him; but if I go to a friend, I can tell him all that is on my own mind… What a place He sets us in!

"This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you." That is, self-giving-up love, true love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Now, the Lord is not here speaking of His love to enemies, the manner of God's love to the world, but His love to His friends… connected with their keeping His commandments, universal obedience.

Death is the greatest act of sacrifice by which love can be expressed… In order to express divine love, Christ has gone to the utmost limit of self-sacrifice. No consideration could deter Him from entering into all that we were liable to by the just judgment of God. The wrath of man was there and the dread power of Satan also. He perfectly understood and measured what lay before Him and entered into it that the mighty unfathomable love of His heart might be known. No man took His life from Him, He laid it down of Himself.

"But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do" (v.31)… Again in the next chapter He says, "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (v.13); again the wave offering underlies the heave offering, every move that was made for the pleasure of God was actuated by divine love.

Recalling this, the Apostle John, in his first epistle writes, "Hereby perceive we the love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren"… We may not be asked to do so much, "But whoso has this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?"