I John 3:16: This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Laying down our lives is a distinctly Christian commitment. Only the Christian can truly say they follow a Lord who died for them. The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is the model of Christian existence. The Christian faith is self-sacrificial. The saint looks at his brother and says, “You are a follower of the crucified Lord and my duty is to lay down my life for you.”
Now, at this point, it is tempting to list ten examples of sacrifice, but one would naturally feel like once he completes the list his sacrificial disposition ends. Laying down our lives for one another is not always calculated, it is generally an act of service at a time when we least expect.
True love sees an opportunity to lay down our lives and seizes it with wonder at the Lord of glory who gave his body on a tree. In communion with one another sacrifice becomes the language of love. As C.S. Lewis describes: “When God becomes a Man and lives as a creature among His own creatures in Palestine, then indeed His life is one of supreme self-sacrifice and leads to Calvary.”
