On April 15^th 1973, at 3AM, my brother, David Bryant, was called by the National Weather Service to take a position outside the perimeter of Plainview Texas, as their radar was picking up tornadic activity. David had led a volunteer group of men created to spot for tornadoes in that tornado prone area of the country. He acted quickly and in minutes took his position. He alerted the weather bureau via his two-way radio after seeing an oncoming tornado but was struck by the tornado and killed in the process. The city wide alarm was sounded, and likely lives were saved, as the tornado later struck a portion of the city. Afterward David was commended as a hero, and on his grave-marker is John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  I am thankful for my brother and what he did.

There is a powerful principle of love in this verse, but I know now this verse means much more, as it really can only apply to our Lord. It is speaking directly of Christ Himself and what He would do in giving Himself for sinners.  By context our Lord is providing His last instructions to His disciples before the cross. He has commanded them to, “love one another,” and goes on to say, “even as I have loved you” (John 15:12). They have yet to see the greatest display of love ever made, which will be seen when He dies on their behalf on the cross.  God’s command to love is that which encompasses all commands of Scripture (Matt. 22:40). 

The Lord’s love is a giving of self in entirety, including all faculties of His will, for others. Consider that our Lord knew from all eternity what He would do at the cross. This was not a death that suddenly came upon Him or caught Him by surprise. He repeatedly stated that it was for this purpose that He came. And here Christ commands His followers, which would include us, to love in the same manner that He has loved us. It is a kind of love unique with capability only to those who belong to God. We are those with a new heart and nature. We have the abiding of the Holy Spirit, and an understanding of what is really important that the unsaved world knows nothing about. What Christ is telling His disciples, and through them to us, is an expected new standard. It is a standard from God and of God that coincides with the new covenant and the new birth as a display of the supernatural work of God.

We also find, however, that this love is not automatic. Christ here repeats this as a command. We have personal responsibility and accountability. This accountability is so serious and real that Christ speaks of it in these terms. “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 15;14). The “if you do” is a condition built upon a lordship relation to Him. We should take special note for whom Christ stated He was laying down His life for, “His friends.” This addresses His death’s exclusivity. He then defines who He is referring to by stating, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” His death on the cross is particular and only for those who fit His definition of “friends.” It is another way of stating that we cannot serve God on our own terms, but only according to His terms!  Christ commands that we exercise a particular kind of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is the kind of love that He manifested by dying in our place. God never commands us to do something of which He does not give us the capability of doing. This means that as a Christian I must cherish the saints and exercise this kind of love for not only does it please our Lord, but He commands it.

From these truths we should draw understanding of the importance of our love for one another before God. The world is characterized by degrees of hatred, feuding, jealousy, gossip, and disputing. Paul addresses this in the Galatian church which was acting like the world.  He states, “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:15).  He means by this that just as wild beasts contend sometimes until both beasts are slain, so can even Christians act so foolishly. Such contentions not only destroy the spirituality and happiness of one another, but also severely wound the church. Instead, a spirit of sacrificial love should be manifest in all matters of individuals within the church.

Is this command really all that important?  Obviously, not only is it given by our Lord, but it is the focus and command of Christ at this most significant occasion before the cross. We can also add that it is a consistent command throughout Scripture. An amazing verse is that of 1 Timothy 1:5, “But the goal our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Love is a characteristic of God, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), where we also read, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Did Judas love the other disciples he was with for three years?  He stole from them, deceived them, left them, and betrayed the very One they had all given up their lives to follow. But Judas gives no indication of any sense of obligation of love toward them.  By contrast, we are to spend our energy helping, encouraging, supporting, praying for, and loving the brethren! This should be the clear mark of Christ’s church. You know that history states of the early church, so persecuted and martyred for the name of Christ, that their characteristic as observed by those on the outside was – my how they love one another! There are times when issues come up in our church life that cause stress and sometimes contention. We are a family and there will be those situations. But, never in any situation should we lose our sincere love for one another. Paul stated, “If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).