To Lay Down Your Life

The amount of love God has for his children is immense. We go about our lives and we love many people, but not in God's sense of the word, in our sense of it. Our love does not last; we love someone one day and next they are on our nerves. We all have people in our lives that it seems our patience cannot handle. I can even think of specific people that I dread to see at school and in life in general. These feeling's don't please me, but they are there. That is undeniable.

There is something about Jesus that never ceases to amaze me: his patience. He is patient towards people who want to be healed, people who want salvation, and even people who persecute him, and eventually, nail him to the cross. He is patient as he gets lashed, as he is mocked, and as he dying on the cross. Could you pull that off? Could you sit there dying on the cross and not throw out a few curse words to the people who are doing it? Could you let the people lash at your back until you don't even look like a human anymore, in patience? One of my friends loves to ask a question to other Christians. She first asks "Would you die for Christ?" to which nearly every Christian says "yes". Then she asks "would you suffer ten years for Christ?" Yeah, they usually pause for a moment.

Jesus says this:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no on than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." -- John 15:12-13

First, Jesus says that we have to love others as he has loved us. Then he tells us how he loved us, by laying down his life for us. Does God really expect us to go around dying for our buddies? No, than every Christian would be dead. Could you imagine a world where if your buddy said "Go jump off a bridge", you headed off to kill yourself? Ridiculous. God doesn't expect that every Christian go out and search for opportunities to die for friends, but he expects you to be willing when, and if, that opportunity comes along. If there is a situation where you have the power to take a bullet from your friend, whether that be an insult, a persecution, a physical beating, or death, God expects you to take it.

Some of you might be saying to yourself that you have already decided that you would be willing to die for your friends and family, well I got news for you, you have to be willing to lay down your life for Christ firstly, enemies secondly, and friends thirdly. Christ deserves first because he should already have first in your life, if he doesn't, you should examine your faith. Because he is number one, if you were to die for someone, it should be him. You may be looking at the other two and thinking I got them backwards. Nope. Think about it, if a man runs up to you and aims a gun at your head, the chances are that that guy isn't a Christian. If you were to pull out your pistol and shoot him before he could get to you, you just ended that guys life, which means he is headed straight to hell for eternal punishment. But if you die, you head to eternal joy, so you are obviously the better option, perhaps this guy will learn something from your willingness to die and come to salvation in the end. God would definitely be proud. Your friends are last because they aren't necessarily even hard to die for because you like them anyways. That may simply be instinct.

Fortunately for you, the chances are pretty slim that you will be put in a situation where you have to sacrifice your physical body for Christ, enemies, or friends. However, you must sacrifice yourself to Christ on a daily basis. Every morning waking up, dropping to your knees, and praying for mercy upon the iniquities and depravity of your flesh. Jesus expects us to "lose our life that we may find it". He expects us to walk every day in the spirit and not in the flesh and ask for forgiveness for the times we haven't. We are to have a higher love for others and Christ than we have for ourselves. We must learn to love others and Christ as Christ loved us; that is his commandment. Worldly love doesn't include sacrifice, a love for God requires daily sacrifice.