And the command is this, “that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12–13)
Laying down one’s life for one’s friend takes practice. We practice speaking difficult truths to one another. We practice sacrificing our own interests for the interests of others. We do this in our homes, with our families and our friends and then perhaps our neighbors. We discover that laying down one’s life for one’s friend is an ethos that informs everything from how we share the resources of this world to how we treat those who have wronged us. Becoming bold in our friendships allows us to become bold with our lives.
Thank God for bold friends.
This message is adapted from “Faith Reflections: Bold friendship” written by Erik Christensen that first appeared in the October 2011 issue of Café magazine.