By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (ESV)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (NIV)

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. (NLT)

Dive Deeper:

There is a great gravity to death. The concept hits us without explanation because we’ve been stung by the effects. Compared to animals humans have an acute understanding of death. In her fascinating article, Kathryn Schultz points out four distinct principles we uniquely comprehend: “causality (every death is precipitated by something), universality (all living things must die), personal mortality (that includes us), and unpredictability (although we know we will die, we can’t know exactly when)” (Schulz The New Yorker). Death holds extraordinary meaning for us, especially when considering causality. As Schultz points out, death is universal which often callouses us to its ever present reality, but occasionally a story wakes us up. We are moved deeply when we read of a soldier who died in battle to protect their friend or a bystander who was hit by a car to save a child. 

We know we read of love in accounts like these because sacrificial death shows sincerity. In other words, if love is to give something up for another then the greatest expression of love is to give up your life. This is what John is declaring in our verse this week. We know real love in Jesus' death. For us, death is unpredictable, but Jesus foreknew His death and accurately predicted it to his disciples. How can we question the love of a God who would knowingly take on flesh to hang on a cross for His creation? Jesus’ passionate desire was to redeem His people and not even being killed would stop His plan. His death demonstrates devotion. 

We must grapple with Jesus’ death. We can’t ignore it. But by knowing His death we also know His love. And this love compels us to have similar devotion. We are drawn to embrace death to ourselves for the love of others. The deeper we grasp the cross of Christ, the more we will take up ours for others. Throughout Church history, this has been true. Take our Bible for example. Tyndale was burned alive so we could read Scripture in English. Or the Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery to bring the Gospel to an enslaved island. The church today exists because of previous generations' sacrifice. Tertullian said it best, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” We don’t experience immense persecution here in the West, but the principle is the same. Expressions of death (regardless of the size) demonstrate devotion. Whether large or small, let Jesus’ death of devotion stir your sacrifice for others.

Written by Ben Hesch