What is laying down your life for your friends?; John 15:13

Title: What is laying down your life for your friends?; John 15:13.

 

John 15:12"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

 

And now we see the extent of the power of this love.

 

John 15:13"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

 

Agapan love has such power that it makes a believer disregard his own life in favor of the betterment of another.

 

However, it’s not a disregard for hating one life, but a deliverance to find that life that blossoms on the safety net of God’s grace.

 

Satan’s counter power to God’s love is arrogance and legalism, both of which result in self-promotion, self-absorption, and self-deception. Satan’s system leads to protection of self while God’s system leads to loss of self. And as we have seen several times, when you lose yourself, you find yourself.

 

Matt 16:25

"For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.

 

The greater love is obviously what Jesus Christ did for us. He wants us to have this soul love, the RMA, but He also wants us to show how far a RMA can carry you.

 

Jesus Christ went further with this capacity for love in His soul than anyone else has ever gone in history. With a RMA you can go a long way in this life. It is the devil’s world but an RMA carries you through many things. Jesus Christ was carried all of the way to the thing that was most repugnant to Him.

 

John 15:13"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

 

“has” - e;cw[echo] = to have and to hold. This word speaks of the believer’s capacity for agape love.

 

 “life” yuch, [psuche] = soul. The real you is in the soul therefore laying down is not a reference to physical life, but your essence.

 

The essence of the soul:

Self-consciousness - self awareness

Mentality - the thinking part (left lobe and right lobe)

Volition - choices

Emotion - the responder of the soul

Conscience - norms and standards.

 

This is what is laid down for the betterment of another. Your soul can concentrate on itself and its house, your flesh, or it can concentrate on the service of others.

 

Concentration on self is OSN control.

 

Self awareness leads to protection of self at all costs.

 

Mentality is used to think human viewpoint and pleasure of self and to only think about how things affect self.

 

Volition makes choices that only promote self.

 

Emotion only responds to pleasure of self, and often it takes control of the soul.

 

Conscience has norms and standards that have developed a priority system based on the function of the other four.

 

What becomes important is my emotion, my choices over another’s, my thinking, and my protection. Together a machinery is made for the production of MAS’s with heavy emphasis on fear, anxiety, and worry, which result from the correct conclusion that you may not be able to protect this selfish soul, and hatred of people or things that may seem to take away the little world you’ve built for yourself.

 

A soul that is filled with the Spirit and thinking agape love is prizing what is divinely valuable in the world.

 

This soul isn’t consumed with liking, pleasure, promotion, approbation, self-preservation, etc. There is nothing wrong with these things in their place, and their place is never a top priority in a soul that is filled with the Spirit and thinking agape love.

When agape love takes a hold of the soul then the self-preservation mode is changed to laying down the soul on behalf of another, and the fear of the selfish soul is transformed into freedom and happiness.

 

There is fear in laying down your lifesoul on behalf of another, but that’s the OSN fearing loss of power as well as the fear of missing out on something you deem pleasurable or comfortable.

 

When the OSN says, “No you can’t do it, you will lose out and be a fool,” you must overcome that false premise with the promises of God and take a step of faith, and it won’t feel natural in the beginning.

 

Occupation with Christ is agape love control of the soul [FHS].

 

Self awareness becomes an awareness of who you are in Christ.

 

Thinking becomes BD.

 

The choices result from a love of doctrine and a desire to glorify God and to not hinder another from doing the same and in fact, making choices that enable them even more.

 

Emotion results from the joy of executing God’s plan.

 

The conscience has an entirely new set of priorities; God first and then others, and all to His glory.

 

All fear is gone in this perfected love since God has promised to prosper the soul that lays down itself for another. What was once a fear has become a grace expectancy of future blessing from the justice of God.

 

John 15:13"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

 

 “for” - u`per[huper] = the preposition of substitution - “on behalf of.”

 

 “friends” - fi,loj[philos] = those with whom you have a total soul love. This is mature love in fellowship, applying to the entire royal family, after agape love has been matured.

 

This is the tremendous power of this love and every believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity to possess it.

 

There is a different emphasis between the friends of the RF and your dearest friend or friends. Generally we have one, two, or three really close friends with whom we share a deep rapport. This is based on attraction, commonality of thinking, likes, and dislikes.

 

However the emphasis here is on a soul love where admiration and affection are directed towards our common relationship to Christ within His body, and not typical, exclusive friendship.

 

This is true fellowship with the royal family and it excludes certain very intimate relationships. This is made clear in another passage.

 

1 John 3:16

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren [adelphos].

 

This is adelphos without the philo dough. The lay down is for every believer in your path and not just those whom you’ve experienced commonality.

 

Every believer is in Christ, but no believer is best friends with every other believer.

 

So while philos is rooted in personal love, its nuance in context of the RF is based on the knowledge of every other believer’s relationship to Christ.

 

Every believer possesses Christ’s righteousness, and that we are all placed in the body of Christ according to the Sovereign will of God. There is a certain attraction to these things from the positive believer.

 

Don’t forget how dangerous fellowship can be without agape love’s willingness to lay down one’s life.

 

In verse 14 we again have friendship or fellowship, but this is with TLJC and it is different than our friendship and fellowship with one another. The reason it is different is because Christ is not in the body. Christ is the head.

 

John 15:14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you.

 

 

In verse 14 there is a subtle, but very real change in the context of the message. Philos in the RF applies to the value in every believer in their possession of +R and union with Christ.

 

Philos with Christ is different since it depends on your PMABD.

 

Our relationship with one another is different than our relationship with Christ because Christ is the head of the body. We are under His authority forever.

 

We are commanded not to evaluate one another, yet Christ will evaluate each of us. We do not give commands to one another [exception is parents to children] yet Christ gives us His commands.

 

The qualifications for friendship between an authority and those under the authority depends entirely on the understanding and agreement of the policies and procedures of the authority.