John 15:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since they are joined to one another by passing advantages, their love has neither fervor nor constancy.

On the contrary, every insult, loss of money, envy, love of vainglory, or anything similar easily destroys their love, because it has no spiritual root.

If such a root existed, nothing worldly could destroy what is spiritual.

Love that has Christ as its foundation is firm, constant, and unconquerable.

Nothing can tear it apart: neither slander, nor dangers, nor death, nor anything of the kind.

One who loves in this way, even if he suffers a thousand blows because of his love, will not abandon it.

One who loves because he is loved will break off his love if something unpleasant happens to him.

But one who is joined by that love will never abandon it.

Therefore Paul also said: “Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:8).

What will you say in your defense?

That the one honored by you offended you?

Or that the one benefited by you wished to kill you?

But if you love for Christ’s sake, this very thing disposes you to greater love.

What serves among others to destroy love serves here to confirm it.

Why? First, because such a person becomes the cause of rewards for you.

Second, because he has need of greater help and care for him.

For this reason, one who loves in this way does not consider family, homeland, wealth, reciprocal love, or anything similar.

Even if he is hated, wronged, and slain, he does not cease to love, since he has Christ as the sufficient cause of love.

Looking unwaveringly to Him, he remains firm and unchangeable.

Christ also loved in this way: enemies, the ungrateful, wrongdoers, revilers, haters, those who did not even wish to look at Him, and those who preferred wood and stones to Him.

He loved them with the highest love, to which no equal can be found.

He says: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his soul for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

See how He cares also for those who crucified Him and who showed such fury against Him.

He spoke about them to the Father in this way: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

And afterward He even sent the disciples to them.

Therefore let us also emulate this love and look to it, so that, becoming imitators of Christ, we may be counted worthy of both present and future blessings.

May this be by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

Listen also to what he commands concerning love, the head of the virtues.

After placing it above all things and speaking of its works, he explained that he requires from laypeople the same love that Christ required from the disciples.

As the Savior said that the highest degree of love consists in laying down one’s soul for one’s friends (Jn 15:13), so Paul expressed the same thing when he said: “It does not seek its own” (1 Cor 13:5).

He commanded us to strive for such love.

Thus, if only this one thing had been said, it would be sufficient to prove that the same thing is required from laypeople as from monks.

For love is the bond and root of many virtues, and Paul sets it forth in detail.

To show that He went up to it, the cross, voluntarily and out of love, not by necessity or against His will, and that it was desirable and very pleasing to Him, Christ says: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his soul for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

Listen also to what he, the Apostle Paul, commands concerning love, the head of the virtues.

After placing it above all things and speaking of its works, he explained that he requires from laypeople the same love that Christ required from the disciples.

As the Savior said that the highest degree of love consists in laying down one’s soul for one’s friends, so Paul expressed the same thing when he said: “It does not seek its own” (1 Cor 13:5).

He commanded us to strive for such love.

Thus, if only this one thing had been said, it would be sufficient to prove that the same thing is required from laypeople as from monks.

For love is the bond and root of many virtues.

They must be ready, without hesitation and willingly, to undergo even bodily death itself. For the power of the love of our Savior reached even to this limit.

To say this was nothing other than to encourage the disciples to extraordinary and unusual courage.

It was to urge them toward the highest brotherly love, to build up a brave and God-loving disposition of soul, and to summon an invincible and unconquerable zeal toward fervent desire to do everything most pleasing to Him.

Paul showed himself to us as such when he said: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).

And again: “For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus, that One died for all, therefore all died” (2 Cor 5:14-15).

And besides this: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom 8:35).

Do you not hear how he proclaims that absolutely nothing can resist or cut them off from love for Christ?

And since even guarding the flocks and feeding the lambs of Christ is also a work of love toward Him, is it not perfectly clear what He means?

The one who preaches the saving word to those who do not know God will be above death, stronger than persecutions and the sword, and will utterly despise every distress.

If we must state briefly the meaning of the Savior’s saying, and express in general what He wishes His disciples to do, it is this.

He commands them unfailingly, and with their spirit kept free from every fear, to minister as priests the word of faith in Him and to make the Gospel known to the inhabitants of the whole world.

He says this same thing through the voice of Isaiah: “Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, who bringest good tidings! Lift up thy voice with strength, O Jerusalem, who bringest good tidings. Be strong; fear not!” (Is 40:9).

We see that the holy disciples themselves were able to do this, asking it of God in most earnest prayer.

When they accused the folly of the Jews, they said: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to Thy servants to speak Thy word with boldness” (Acts 4:29).

Very many, without doubt, oppose those who minister the Gospel of Christ and wickedly hinder them.

But even if powerful fear and terrible waves of plots rise up, suffering means nothing to true disciples until their struggles of love are fulfilled.

I mean such love as the Savior showed toward us, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2), in order to accomplish salvation for those who had sinned.

If He had not willed to suffer for us, we would still be dead, servants of the devil, “fools and blind” (Mt 23:17).

We would have remained deprived of every good, slaves of pleasure and sin, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).

But now the Savior, out of love for us, laid down even His own soul for us.

By showing incomparable love for mankind, He has made us zealous and thrice-blessed, lacking no good whatsoever.

In this sense, I think, the words cited will fittingly apply to the God-inspired leaders of the disciples.

But if one extends this saying to all, namely, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” the inquiry will yield very great benefit.

For if love for the brethren contains and accomplishes the fulfillment of the whole commandment of our Savior, is not the one who chiefly strives to fulfill it purely and blamelessly worthy of great admiration?

This is so since love is, so to speak, the summing up of all virtues.

For love for one another is second after love for God. The whole power of piety toward God is, as it were, contained in this one “word”: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:14).

The Lord, beloved brethren, defined the fullness of the love with which we must love one another when He said: “No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Above He had said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). Then He added, by the words you have now heard: “No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

From this follows what the same Evangelist said in his Epistle. As Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (cf. 1 Jn 3:16).

Certainly we are to love one another as He loved us, He Who laid down His life for us.

Without doubt, we read the same in the Proverbs of Solomon: “If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, consider carefully what is before you. Stretch out your hand, knowing that you must prepare the same” (cf. Prov 23:1-2 LXX).

For what is that table of the ruler, if not the place from which we receive the Body and Blood of Him Who laid down His life for us?

And what does it mean to sit at it, if not to draw near to humility?

What does it mean to consider carefully what is before you, if not to recognize worthily so great a grace?

What does it mean to stretch out your hand, so as to know that you must prepare the same?

It means, as I have already said, that since Christ laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

For, as the Apostle Peter also said, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps (1 Pet 2:21). This is what “to prepare the same” means.

This the blessed martyrs accomplished with burning love. If we do not celebrate their memorial days in vain, we must prepare the same as they prepared.

At the meal where they themselves are fed, we also draw near to the table of the Lord.

To be sure, we commemorate them at that meal not as we commemorate others who have reposed in peace, so as to pray for them.

Rather, we commemorate them so that they may pray for us, that we may be able to follow in their steps.

For they reached the fullness of that love which the Lord said cannot be greater. They offered to their brethren what they themselves had received at the Lord’s table.

Yet this must not be said as though we could become equal to the Lord Christ if, for His sake, we go even to martyrdom.

He had authority to lay down His life and to take it up again (cf. Jn 10:18). We do not live as long as we wish, and we die even if we do not wish it.

When He died, shortly afterward He trampled death in Himself. In His death we are delivered from death.

His flesh did not see corruption (Acts 2:31). Ours, after decay, will be clothed through Him with incorruption at the end of the age.

He does not need us in order to save us. Without Him we can do nothing.

He became the Vine for us, the branches. Apart from Him we cannot have life.

Finally, even if brethren die for brethren, still the blood of a martyr is not shed for the redemption of a brother’s sins. He accomplished this for us.

In this death for us, He showed us not what we could imitate, but that for which we must give Him thanks.

Whenever the martyrs shed their blood for the brethren, they offered what they themselves had received from the Lord’s table.

In all else, as I have already said, though I could not say everything, the martyr of Christ is far removed from Christ.

If someone compared himself with Christ, I do not say in power, but even in the degree of innocence, he would be seeking more than the meaning of salvation requires.

If he thought, not that he would save another, but at least that he himself had no sin, he would take upon himself too much, and could not bear it.

In this regard, the saying in Proverbs that follows rightly admonishes him: “If you are too greedy, do not desire his foods.”

“For it will be better if you take nothing from there, than if you take more than is necessary for you. For these foods contain a false life” (cf. Prov 23:2-4).

That is, they contain a deceptive life. For by saying that he is without sin, a man cannot show himself righteous. He can only pretend to be righteous.

Therefore it is said, “For these foods contain a false life.”

There is only One Who could both have human flesh and have no sin.

What follows is rightly prescribed for us. That expression and proverb is very fitting to human weakness, to which it is said: “When you are poor, do not exalt yourself before the rich man” (cf. Prov 23:4).

For the rich man is Christ, Who was never burdened by any debt, either His own or inherited. He Himself is righteous and justifies others.

Do not exalt yourself before Him, being so poor that every day, when praying for forgiveness of sins, you confess your own poverty.

“Refrain from your thoughts,” says the book of Proverbs. From what should one refrain, if not from false presumption?

Since He is not only man, but also God, He can never be accused.

“For if you turn your eye toward Him, you will nowhere see Him” (cf. Prov 23:5).

“Your eye” is, of course, a human eye, by which you see what is human.

“If you turn it toward Him, you will nowhere see Him,” because He cannot be seen in the way you are able to see.

“For He has prepared wings for Himself like an eagle, and He will fly away to the house of His overseer” (cf. Prov 23:5).

From that house He came to us, and He did not find us such as He Himself was when He came.

Let us therefore love one another, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us (cf. Gal 2:20).

For greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Let us imitate Him in devout obedience, without daring to make ourselves equal to Him.

He is nailed with nails, crucified, and pierced with a spear. Thus, having united Himself with us in flesh and spirit, and having taken sufferings upon Himself for us, He then handed this law down to the holy apostles and disciples, prophets, fathers, and patriarchs. Some He taught beforehand by the Holy Spirit, and to others He showed it by His most pure Body. Revealing this taking upon Himself, He said: "Do not fear; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). Likewise: "For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth" (Jn 17:19). And again: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). Therefore holy Paul also, imitating the Lord, said: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the Church" (Col 1:24). In this he mystically indicates this taking upon oneself in love. Do you wish to know more clearly how all the apostles, in thought, word, and deed, entered into communion with us and through this communion bore temptations for us? They did this in thought by setting the Scriptures before us, citing prophecies, and exhorting us to believe in Christ as Deliverer. They assured us that we must serve Him as the Son of God by nature, prayed for us, shed tears, and did all that the faithful can do in thought. They did it by words, entreating us, warning us, teaching, rebuking, and reproaching us for little faith. They censured our ignorance, explained the Scriptures, revealed the time, confessed Christ, and preached that He was crucified for us. They affirmed that the Word who became man is one, not two, though we understand Him as consisting of two natures, united without division and without confusion. In every time, place, and deed they cut off false belief. They did not consent to falsehood. They did not converse with those who boast according to the flesh. They did not remain with the vainglorious. They did not fear the proud. They humbled the wicked, received the lowly, made the pious their own, and taught us to do the same. They did it by deeds, being persecuted, mocked, deprived, insulted, afflicted, cast into prisons, killed, and suffering such things for us. Thus, having entered into communion with us, they also received our temptations. For they say: "If we are afflicted, it is for your salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort." They received this law from the Lord, who said: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). And they handed the same down to us, saying: "Because He laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16). And again: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2).

Therefore John the Baptist also says: "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise" (Lk 3:11). Therefore, if in times of peace a man does not give his tunic for God's sake, will he give his life in time of persecution? Therefore, for the power of love to be invincible in persecution, it must be nourished by mercy in time of peace. It must learn first to give Almighty God its possessions, and afterward itself.

But the question is this: will I do good, and will I show love to both, if I allow the evil man to accomplish without hindrance the evil he has planned?

I can do good toward the evil man only by turning him away from committing evil, as a sin that destroys his soul.

I can do good toward the one attacked only by delivering him from the evil that threatens him.

Therefore I can show love to both and do good for them only by averting the evil. In such a case, resistance to evil is my duty, flowing from the meaning of the commandments of Jesus Christ.

But where is the limit of this resistance? Must I resist the evil man with self-denial, even at risk to my life and to his?

Must I place love for my neighbors, and the desire to do good to both, above fears for my own life?

Christ Himself answers these questions when He says: “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

In saying this, Christ understood by the name “friends” all neighbors generally, and by “life,” life itself.

By commanding us to show the highest degree of love for our neighbors, the sacrifice of our own life to save them from evil, He thereby indicated the path.

In the struggle against evil, or against an evil man, one must not stop halfway from fear of suffering oneself.

Rather, one must act with readiness, if need be, even to lay down one’s life for the good work begun.

The Tolstoyans explain their teaching by the example of a robber attacking a defenseless child. They say this:

“No matter how terrible the robber who attacks any innocent and beautiful child, a Christian has no basis for departing from the law given him by God.”

“He may not do to the robber what the robber wishes to do to the child. He may implore the robber. He may place his body between the robber and his victim.”

“But one thing he cannot do: consciously depart from the law given him by God, the fulfillment of which constitutes the meaning of his life” (L. N. Tolstoy, On Non-Resistance to Evil).

In short, the Tolstoyans acknowledge that a Christian who wishes literally to fulfill Jesus’ commandment on non-resistance to evil may, in the example given, place himself under the robber’s knife.

But he must not, and dare not, forcibly prevent the robber from killing the defenseless child.

Yet in such a case the Christian’s offering of himself as a sacrifice to the robber’s malice will be purposeless and senseless.

By this he will not fulfill Jesus’ commandment about sacrificing one’s life for the good of neighbors. He will do no good either to the robber or to the child.

On the contrary, by bringing the robber to a double murder, he will thereby cause evil to the robber himself, laying a new sin upon his soul.

Moreover, having had the possibility of saving the child’s life, yet allowing the robber to kill him without hindrance, he thereby as it were consents to the harm done to the child.

Through this he becomes guilty of the child’s death. Acting so, the Tolstoyan will cause evil both to the robber and to the child.

He himself will commit a grave sin, becoming a participant in the murder by allowing it.

True, if he remains alive, he will comfort himself with the thought that he did not touch the robber even with a finger.

Therefore, he will say, he literally fulfilled the commandment on non-resistance to evil. What concern is it of mine that the child was killed, and that the robber committed a grave sin?

I did not resist the evil man. Therefore I fulfilled the commandment literally. Such is the law given me by God, the fulfillment of which constitutes the meaning of my life.

So also the Pharisees comforted themselves when, wishing literally to fulfill the commandment of Sabbath rest, they considered it a sin to do a good deed on the Sabbath.

What concern is it of mine, the Pharisee said, that a man perished to whom I refused help?

I refused to save him on the Sabbath. I piously abstained from violating the law given me by God, the fulfillment of which constitutes the meaning of my life.

But Christ rebuked such Pharisees, proving to them that behind the letter of the law they failed to notice its meaning.

Warning His disciples against such understanding and fulfillment of the commandments, He said: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5:20).

However, the Tolstoyans are indifferent to these words, since they do not believe in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Thus, if the commandment on non-resistance to the evil man is compared with the commandment of self-denying love, the matter becomes clear.

To take no measures to prevent evil, when there was opportunity to do so, is an undoubted violation of the commandment of love.

To allow the evil man to do evil without hindrance, when there was opportunity to resist him, is to allow evil to be committed.

This is a violation of the commandment to resist evil by good.

Therefore, the use of force against the evil man to prevent evil, when it cannot be prevented in any other way, is not a violation of the commandment on non-resistance.

It is the necessary consequence of exact fulfillment of the commandment of love, and of rendering good for evil.

But what if, acting in this way, I am forced to cause harm, or visible evil, to the evil man himself?

What if, saving my neighbor from the evil threatening him, and saving the evil man from sin, I am ready even to lay down my life for their salvation?

What if I cannot attain this aim except by killing the evil man or inflicting some bodily injury upon him?

Will this be a sin on my part? Or, better, will this sin be imputed to me as guilt?

If, while saving my neighbor, I expose my life to danger, then I certainly pursue no personal aims of my own. I give myself wholly to service of my neighbor.

If, acting so, I save the life of the one attacked, and also save the soul of the evil man from a terrible sin, will these good deeds not expiate my involuntary sin, the killing of the evil man?

For apart from my own will I was placed in the sad necessity of choosing one of two things.

Either I could allow the murder of the innocent and the ruin of the evil man’s soul, and thereby take a double sin upon my own soul.

Or I could avert the evil and the evil man’s sin, while risking the commission of evil myself.

There is no third outcome, unless one counts the purposeless act, advised by the Tolstoyans, of placing oneself under the robber’s knife.

Therefore, if I was placed in the necessity of choosing between two evils and chose the lesser, while also accomplishing two good deeds, I hold that my compelled sin will be forgiven me.

On the scales of divine justice, the self-denying feat of saving my neighbor will outweigh my sin. In any case, I will be less guilty than if I allow the most wicked crime to take place.

This in no way contradicts the saying considered here, that the Lord laid down His life for His friends. The Apostle speaks generally of the sinfulness of the world, for whose redemption Christ died for all, since this sinfulness extended and still extends to all. The Lord, however, speaks particularly of those close to Him, of that small company of friends with whom He was now conversing. They too, of course, were not free from this sinfulness that extends to all.

Yet the Lord Jesus calls these enemies His friends. What wondrous love! The world had never yet seen such love, a love that would sacrifice life for its enemies. After this, what should Christ's disciples not do for others? After the sacrifice offered for their enemies by their Lord and Master, there is no sacrifice they have the right to refuse. After this sacrifice, for the benefit of others, we must spare neither wealth, nor health, nor our very life. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. Therefore we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 Jn 3:16).