John 15:13
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
Passage from the Gospel of John, chapter 15
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:10-17)
Giving our lives for those we love
This passage from chapter 15 of the Gospel of John provides details on the second commandment of the Lord: Loving our neighbors. At the beginning of Chapter 15, Jesus reminds his apostles that they must remain with Him to bear fruit. Here, Jesus explains how to remain with Him. It is by living the commandment of love that man fully obeys the Lord, thus becoming not the servant of God, but the friend of Christ. Jesus gives the measure of perfect love: Giving one’s life. This love suffers no exception, Jesus commands us to love not only our friends but also our enemies. This is where we recognize the true sons of the Father (Matthew 5:38-48). Christ’s earthly life is a continuous model of the commandment of love, brought to its perfection in his sacrifice on the Cross.
With Hozana we pray that love be at the heart of our lives
If you wish to live the commandment of love given by Jesus, Hozana offers you several prayer communities to answer His call./en/bible/new-testam
- Hozana offers 21 days of prayer to put Christ at the center of your life. With this prayer community, pray to live, love, and be sanctified!
- Great Christian figures, such as Mother Teresa, have chosen to live the word of Jesus by giving their lives for their brothers, let us be guided by her during this novena, so that we too may put love at the heart of our lives.
- “Giving one’s life for those we love” is what everyone is called to live out within a family. Join this novena so that love may reign above all in families!
