Jesus Christ our Lord said, "You are my friends if you obey my commandment - love one another." He also said, "There is no greater love than this, to offer one's life for one's friend." [See John 15: 12-17 for the complete passage.]
As disciples and friends of the Lord Jesus Christ we are called, and expected, to concretely express the meaning of love in our lives. Love is not merely an ideal or an abstract idea floating on the air and picked up only for discussion or reflection. It is a concrete and real virtue which inspires and motivates people to unselfishly do things for others. A true lover does a thing not for one's self but for someone else's. Jesus our Lord Himself manifested it concretely by becoming man though he was God and accepting death on the Cross [see Philippians 2: 6-11] for the salvation of all, especially those who would believe in Him [see John 3:16].
Hence the greatest expression of love is giving up one's life for the sake of others. One may say that if life is so important, why should one man give it up for someone else's? Because that's how we could measure the ultimate truth of one's love for another. Do we not many times measure one's love for a spouse, child, friend, or someone else through things that one gives to that spouse, child, friend or someone else? Do we not many times say that one must love someone else than another because of the value of the things one has given that someone more than the other? The greater the love, the greater the gift. Hence if the love is so great nothing more could be given beyond life itself. Just imagine how great the love of God is for us that He gave the life of His only begotten Son [John 3:16].
One's readiness to offer one's life for the sake of another would also mean one's readiness to respect and protect that life for which one would willingly give up one's life for. It would be hypocrisy to say that one would be willing to offer one's life for another without being ready to respect and protect that very life of the other. It is the consequence of being ready to die for another to respect and protect the life of that other or else it would be nothing but mere rhetoric and a waste of one's life.
The truest expression of Christian love is to give one's life for another with full knowledge and willingness [see John 10:18] and to respect and protect another life for the Lord Himself came into the world that we may have the fullness of life [see John 10:10]. If God Himself values human life, then man is obliged to give the utmost respect and protection to that life which came from God Himself at the moment of Creation [see Genesis 2:7]. Since life came upon this world through God's initiative and not according to human capacity, it is clear that only God owns life and has the absolute right over it [see Genesis 9:5 and Exodus 20;13]. Man's right over his own life is but a sharing in the power of God over life and it is only for the purpose of achieving the purpose for which life has been bestowed by God upon man: to give glory to Him and to obey His commands so that at the end of time he would be able to join the joys of his Creator for all eternity [see Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14; Psalm 17:15 and I John 3:2 among others]!
To sum everything up, as Christ's friends and followers who obey His command to love one another we ought to be ready to give our lives up willingly for the sake of other people's salvation and to defend, respect and protect life itself for God alone is Lord of life. St Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:17, "If anyone would destroy God's temple which is our body, God will destroy him for God's sanctuary is holy." How much more valuable that which is enshrined in this temple which is the life that has been breathed into our body by God? Just imagine how much more punishment would be in store for the one who destroys that breath of God!
Hence the greatest expression of love is giving up one's life for the sake of others. One may say that if life is so important, why should one man give it up for someone else's? Because that's how we could measure the ultimate truth of one's love for another. Do we not many times measure one's love for a spouse, child, friend, or someone else through things that one gives to that spouse, child, friend or someone else? Do we not many times say that one must love someone else than another because of the value of the things one has given that someone more than the other? The greater the love, the greater the gift. Hence if the love is so great nothing more could be given beyond life itself. Just imagine how great the love of God is for us that He gave the life of His only begotten Son [John 3:16].
One's readiness to offer one's life for the sake of another would also mean one's readiness to respect and protect that life for which one would willingly give up one's life for. It would be hypocrisy to say that one would be willing to offer one's life for another without being ready to respect and protect that very life of the other. It is the consequence of being ready to die for another to respect and protect the life of that other or else it would be nothing but mere rhetoric and a waste of one's life.
The truest expression of Christian love is to give one's life for another with full knowledge and willingness [see John 10:18] and to respect and protect another life for the Lord Himself came into the world that we may have the fullness of life [see John 10:10]. If God Himself values human life, then man is obliged to give the utmost respect and protection to that life which came from God Himself at the moment of Creation [see Genesis 2:7]. Since life came upon this world through God's initiative and not according to human capacity, it is clear that only God owns life and has the absolute right over it [see Genesis 9:5 and Exodus 20;13]. Man's right over his own life is but a sharing in the power of God over life and it is only for the purpose of achieving the purpose for which life has been bestowed by God upon man: to give glory to Him and to obey His commands so that at the end of time he would be able to join the joys of his Creator for all eternity [see Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14; Psalm 17:15 and I John 3:2 among others]!
To sum everything up, as Christ's friends and followers who obey His command to love one another we ought to be ready to give our lives up willingly for the sake of other people's salvation and to defend, respect and protect life itself for God alone is Lord of life. St Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:17, "If anyone would destroy God's temple which is our body, God will destroy him for God's sanctuary is holy." How much more valuable that which is enshrined in this temple which is the life that has been breathed into our body by God? Just imagine how much more punishment would be in store for the one who destroys that breath of God!
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