Untitled Sermon

At one level, this axiom lays out the standard of love Jesus’ disciples are to show to one another; at another, it refers to Jesus’ death on behalf of his friends—even if the disciples could not have understood this point when they first heard the words. ‘The eternal divine love reached its complete and unsurpassable expression in the death of Christ, which was at the same time the death of a man for his friends’ (Barrett, p. 476). The saying thus becomes one of the things of which the Holy Spirit will remind them in due course (14:26). As the Lamb of God (1:29, 36), Jesus is supremely the one who gives his life for his friends (philoi). Because John does not normally distinguish the two most common roots for ‘to love’ (agapaō and phileō), we are probably justified in rendering this ‘that one lay down his life for those he loves’ (cf. 10:15).

Two reflections are called for to mute the concerns of some commentators. First, although it is true that many ancient writers expatiate on friendship and argue that laying down one’s life for a friend is the final demonstration of true friendship, it is going too far to conclude that John is merely ‘clothing an ancient rule of friendship in biblical speech in order to apply it to the relation of Jesus to His disciples and also to that of the disciples with one another’ (G. Stählin, TDNT 9. 166). The background of the Old Testament, coupled with the supreme example of Jesus himself, provides all the inspiration that is needed. It is quite another thing, however, to say that this utterance and the example of Jesus would resonate widely amongst readers in the ancient world.

Second, many object that to call this life-sacrificing love for friends the greatest love is to lower the standard: surely life-sacrificing love for enemies is greater yet. The objection fails to lay enough weight on the context, presupposing, as it does, that Jesus ought to be setting out a comparison between love for friends and love for enemies, when in fact the historic context finds Jesus among friends, addressing friends, and concerned to set out a pattern for their future behaviour (cf. notes on 13:34–35). In different contexts we find Jesus enjoining love for enemies upon his disciples (), or Paul testifying that God’s enemies were reconciled to him by the death of his Son (). In the context of such sacrifice, ‘love has sunk below its proper level if it begins to ask who is my friend and who is my enemy’.

Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 521–522). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.