This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.- John 15:12-15 NLT
The child’s voice trembled as she sang, her soft brown curls swinging. “Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.” You may have sung this song as a child. Do you believe it? You may automatically say yes because you know in your head that God loves you. But do you have the deep heart knowledge of his love?
In our passage today, Jesus was telling his disciples about great love. He was hours away from laying down his life for his best friends. Jesus proved his love for them and for you by going through an excruciating death. He took your sins’ punishment so you could be forgiven and have a peaceful relationship with God. There is no more awesome demonstration of love than Jesus laying down his life for you. You were his enemy, but he died to make you his friend. This is the ultimate example of true sacrificial friendship. Tim Keller said it this way –a true friend always lets you in and never lets you down.*
In our verses today, Jesus orders us to love each other in the same way he loved us. That sounds impossible! But it is possible…only when we cling to God’s power, not our own.
By growing closer to Jesus as our best friend, we will become a better friend to others, encouraging and admonishing them as Jesus does for us, and even sacrificing our own preferences, comforts, and time for them.
Dear Father God, Thank you for Jesus demonstrating true loving friendship. Help me to pursue my friendship with him every day. May I grow in allowing your Spirit to empower me to sacrifice for my friends when you call me to.
Throughout this day: listen to the late Pastor Tim Keller’s sermon on friendship from which some of the concepts in this devotional came.
Originally published on https://thelife.com/devotionals/the-ultimate-example
June 17, 2025
