Bible Strands
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to his disciples during the farewell discourse (John 13–17), immediately after commanding them to love one another as he has loved them (15:12) and just before defining friendship as obedience to his commands (15:14).
The words — meizona (μείζονα) makes the claim superlative: no greater love exists. agapēn (ἀγάπην) specifies the kind — not affection or fondness, but the deliberate, costly love the Gospel consistently identifies with Christ's own action.
The thread — The same "laying down" appears in John 10:11, where the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Ephesians 5:2 and Romans 5:6 both describe Christ's death as the concrete expression of this agapē.
Why it lands — The verse sets a measurable ceiling on love: it is not a feeling but an act of self-surrender to the point of death for those one calls friends. A reader is asked to examine whether their love for others has ever cost them anything.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Cross-references
- John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
- Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- Romans 5:6 For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
- John 10:15 just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.
- 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.