Greater Love Has No One then This

“Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:14

     As we always look to our Lord as the ultimate example of how we must live our lives, we hear Him say in John 14:31, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” Jesus showed His love for the Father by keeping His commands. Are we to be any different? Jesus says in John 15:10, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.” And continuing in verse 17, “This is my command: Love one another.”

     One might ask, “To what extent should we reasonably go in order to fulfill this command, and remain in Jesus’ love?” For our answer we can again look to our prime example, Jesus, remembering that in John 15:20 he says, “No servant is greater than his master.”

     Here we offer some examples of what our Lord found to be reasonable service in order to keep God’s commands and thereby remain in His love:

1. It seemed reasonable for Jesus to give up the glory which He had even before the world began (John 17:5) and come down to be born, a peasant, in a lowly manger.
2. It was only reasonable that Jesus reject Satan’s offer of the entire world (Matthew 4:9) and go forth to face that which He knew to be His future suffering.
3. It did not seem too much to ask that Jesus should take upon Himself our infirmities and carry our sorrows, or that He should be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Neither was it unreasonable for Him to take all our punishment upon Him to bring us peace…nor even that we should be healed by the wounds He suffered.
4. It wasn’t beyond reason that the sinless Jesus would spend the final six hours of life on earth enduring the most humiliating and excruciating death ever devised by man so that the world would see that He loved the Father by keeping His commands.

     In light of just these few examples of our Lord’s service, what is our reasonable service? The Apostle Paul offers us his answer to this question in Rom. 12:1: “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

     “Love each other.” With this command in our mind and our eyes firmly fixed upon the ultimate example, our Lord Jesus Christ, may each of us once again commit to laying down our lives for our Lord by giving to the brethren and thereby remain in His love.

© CDMI

The Spirit of Sacrifice

     The story is told of an old Southern slave who had refused his freedom and lived with his master for as long as he needed him. Through the years he had carefully saved up money enough to buy a railroad ticket back to Georgia, when his master should need him no longer. One morning, as the Georgia train was pulling out of Washington, the old Negro came rushing down the platform and barely caught the last car. His shoes were covered with dust, and his appearance showed signs of a long journey. Going from one end of the car to the other, he found no empty seat, so he stood up against the door, wearily shifting from one foot to the other. A young man saw he was weary and courteously gave up his seat.

     Very soon the conductor came along, calling loudly, “Tickets! Tickets!” As he reached a lady in the seat behind the ex-slave, she said, “Oh, sir! I have no ticket, but you must not put me off. Last year,” she went on, “the doctors said my husband had Tuberculosis, and that his only chance of recovery was to go South. So we sold some things and got money enough to send him to Georgia. Yesterday I got a telegram saying he was dying; and Oh! I must go to him, but I have no money. Please don’t put me off.”

The conductor was touched, but told her, “Rules are rules, ma'am. Your story touches me deeply, but if I do not put you off, I will lose my job.” The old Negro looked up and said, “I speck, Conductor, you will have to put me off.” The conductor spoke gruffly, “What do you mean? This woman has some excuse, but you ~ if it were not for the time, I would stop the train and put you off on the roadside! See that you get off at the next stop!”

     “Yes, sir.” weakly said the tired old man.

     As the train slowed down, he pulled his Georgia ticket out of his pocket, bought with the savings of years. When the train stopped he rose up, stepped to the lady’s seat, and gently said, “Here’s your ticket to Georgia, ma’am,” and going down the steps of the car, started on his long journey to Georgia ~ touched by the spirit of true sacrifice.

From The Gospel Herald