Willing to live for it?

John 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

To die for your friends is a great deed. But to die takes but a moment, a single choice, one act. But can you lay down your life as you live? Can you make those many choices, those small decisions, those hard things you have to do to lay down your life for others?

The Scriptures say that, though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. If I would live for Christ I must love Him, and I must love my neighbor. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1 John 4:20)

The Christian life is a life of selflessness. It is a life of love. Selfless love, love so great you are willing to lay down your life. The sermon on the mount was for all Christians, not “graduates.” In it Jesus tells us a Christian is to turn to the other cheek, if someone takes his coat, he is to give his shirt. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That is how you lay down your life.

Christ said in Luke 9 that we are to lay our lives down daily, to take up his cross. The only reason we exist is to glorify God, lets live like we believe it. Being nailed to a cross is hard, it is not enjoyable, and Christ demands that we give ourselves up to it willingly.

I have heard young men say they would die for Christ, but will they live for Him? To die for a cause is fine, yet how did you live for that cause? That is what I want to know. That is what we will follow. Dying to life takes a single choice, but dying to self takes many. We must die daily if we would live in Christ. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Can you do this every single day?

 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott