No One Dies For Nothing

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

John 15:12 (NKJ)

During the turbulent days of the Vietnam War, a college chaplain was speaking with a group of students. One student, thinking about the war, declared, “There is nothing in the world that is worth dying for.”

To that, the chaplain replied: “Well then, since we all die, that means you will one day be faced with dying for nothing.”

Contrary to the student’s opinion, some things are worth dying for. Jesus Christ cited one. He said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

That was Jesus’ reason for giving up his own life. In John 15: 9, he added, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”

Jesus’ idea of friendship was defined and shaped by the Father’s love for him. It is interesting that the Greek word used here for love is phileo. It is a form of the word philos, which is translated as “friend.”

In Greek, a friend is literally “one who is loved.”

Just as the Father’s love shaped and defined Jesus’ life and ministry, so Jesus’ love would come to shape and define those who would believe in him. To be a friend of Jesus is to be one who is loved by God. And because God loves us, we can love others.

In Jesus, who first loved us, we are freed from everything that prevents us from loving others. Jesus not only lived and died for us, he was raised for us, and he ascended to the Father – taking our humanity with him.

In becoming human for us, the Son of God has bound us to himself in such a way that he will never let us go. “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you,” Jesus said in John 14:20.

We belong to Jesus. He has taken our humanity into himself. He is a friend of sinners, which means he is a friend of everyone – and he died, rose and ascended for all his friends.

We all die, but in Christ, no one dies for nothing.

Prayer

Thank you that Jesus, our Friend, died for us, and let his love for me define and shape my relationships with others.

Amen

Study by Joseph Tkach