| «These things I have spoken to you» (15:11) is a refrain throughout this discourse (14:25; 16:1, 33), perhaps explaining to the disciples why he must tell them what they do not yet understand. 8979 Joy (15:11) related well to love and friendship; 8980 later Jewish teachers also associated it heavily with keeping God " s commandments, 8981 as here (15:10–12). «Filled with joy» or «joy made full» (15:11; 16:24; 17:13; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 12 ) was a familiar enough expression 8982 (on joy, see further the comment on 3:29). Earlier Christian tradition had also linked joy with love as a fruit of God " s presence ( Gal 5:22 ) and recognized it as a sign of God " s present reign ( Rom 14:17 ). 2. The Love of Friends (15:12–17) The commandment to love (15:12,17) frames the section, but the closing mention of it abbreviates the formula; 15:12, which includes the whole formula, is emphatic that believers must love one another in the same way that Jesus loved them (15:12; cf. 13:34), which means dying for their friends, as Jesus would die for them (15:13–14). 8983 2A. Dying for Friends (15:13) If believers love one another as he has loved them (15:12), they must lay down their lives for one another (see comment on 13:34). This principle was illustrated earlier when Jesus spoke of going to Lazarus because Lazarus was their «friend» (φλος, 11:11), whom Jesus «loved» (φιλω, 11:3) and for whose life Jesus laid down his own (11:8–16). 8984 Thus Jesus digresses to illustrate his love for them by speaking of how he would lay down his life for them as his friends (15:13–15). 8985 Early Jewish sources prohibit sacrificing another to spare onés own life but still allowed that onés life takes precedence over another " s life. 8986 Nevertheless, though one was not required to love onés neighbor more than oneself, Judaism did praise as heroic the rare persons who would sacrifice their lives on behalf of their friends. 8987 Courageous, heroic, and honorable death was an ancient Mediterranean virtue, 8988 a virtue soon to be illustrated in John " s Passion Narrative. Josephus, for example, portrays those desiring to die nobly for their nation or for fame (e.g., Josephus War 1.43–44, 58); rabbis praised a Roman senator (probably fictitious) who died to spare the Jews. 8989 Because the Greek world highly regarded laying down onés life for another 8990 or for onés nation 8991 and also recognized its occasional value as «an expiatory sacrifice to assuage the anger of the gods,» 8992 Greeks or Romans would readily grasp the early Christian concept that Jesus died «on their behalf,» with or without the benefit of understanding atonement in the Levitical system. |
