… No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another. (Jn 15:9-17)
Jesus says that laying down your life for your friends is the highest form of love, and then says ‘you are my friends’. At times ‘laying down life’ is stressed to such an extend that youngsters are asked to go for war to save the country. We should understand that Jesus had said the above statement in a context of love and friendship. It was not said in a context of war and enmity. ‘Laying down life’ in a context of love and friendship is what Jesus is talking about.
I chose you and appointed you (Like I have called you friends). Initiative is from Jesus and that his action has a purpose. Jesus has not chosen them for the sake of choosing. They have to go do their mission and that their work has to produce effect that will remain.
The commandment of love is to create friends. That is people who will belong to each other and who will be ready to even lay their life for the other because there are friend. The commandment of love also leads them into a mission and that mission also should have lasting effects.
