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John 15:13-14

A pastor years ago used a story about a young boy in one of his sermons. According to the story the boy’s brother needed surgery and the doctor asked the boy to provide a blood transfusion for his brother. The boy agreed and they hooked him up to his brother and started the surgery.

Everything was going smoothly, but after a few minutes the doctor noticed the boy crying and asked what was wrong. Was he in pain? Was he afraid?

“No,” the boy said. “I’m just waiting to die.”

The doctor assured the boy that his brother only needed some of his blood and not all of it, but it was admirable that he was willing to give himself completely for his brother.

Such an attitude is the attitude we should have toward everyone else if we are children of God and we have faith in Jesus. What does Jesus say about love? How do we show that we are friends to Jesus?

This saying of Jesus is both difficult and easy. It is difficult because the thought of sacrificing our own lives for the sake of a person we care about can be hard to accept. It is easy because the likelihood of our needing to give away our lives for another is not very probable.

The statement Jesus makes in verse 13 is plain and simple. Great love for another can be shown by giving up your own life for that person. But the comment in verse 14 seems to qualify the statement.

If we were ever called on to give up our life to save another then our ministry is over. We are finished. We have done our utmost and no more can be expected of us.

However, showing Jesus that we are his friend by doing what he has commanded can seem like a more difficult challenge. It is not a “once and done” type of approach. Obeying the commands of Jesus is a daily challenge for us, one that must be lived out over and over again.

But this is the result of our faith. If we believe in Jesus we are children of God, we are friends to Jesus. And as friends of Jesus we will live out our faith by showing mercy and compassion, by giving up our lives for others – not through our own deaths but by sacrificing our own comforts and desires for the benefit of those in need.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How do you show that you are a friend of Jesus?