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. You are my friends if you do what I command.
John 15:12-14 NIV
Laying Down Your Life
In June 2022, Joseph Hildebrand, a 33-year-old Canadian military veteran, left his Saskatchewan home to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion. On November 7, his wife Carissa’s phone rang around 7 a.m. A man with a heavy Ukrainian accent told her Hildebrand was dead. Through conversations with Hildebrand’s fellow soldiers, Carissa heard he died earlier that day in the eastern city of Bakhmut, pulling dead and injured fellow soldiers to safe territory. Carissa was told artillery struck and killed the love of her life.
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Human beings understand how precious it is when someone lays down his life for others. The love expressed in this ultimate act is unsurpassed. Stories like this make the news, as they should. There is one example of this that stands above all others. Jesus spoke about what was ahead for him when He said this in John 15:12-14: “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. You are my friends if you do what I command.” At this point, the disciples did not understand the implications of this. No matter how many times Jesus told them He had come to die, they wouldn’t fully understand it until the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled their lives and brought all they had seen and heard from Jesus to its fullness. The command is not an easy one – Jesus here calls His followers to do as He did. As we love others, we are called to this ultimate step of love if necessary.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley