We are friends of Jesus
Once again, Jesus has reminded them that at the heart of all his commands there is a single and supreme command: “Love each other as I have loved you” (12; 13:34-35). The standard of our love is to be the same as his love for us, and, as he has already made clear, the way that he showed the full extent of his love was by laying down his life for us (13:1; Phil.2:6-8).
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Loving one another therefore involves glad and willing service of others, giving ourselves for them just as Jesus gave himself for us (1 John 3:16). And he did that in order to make us his friends. The words “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (13), are so frequently applied as a memorial to victims of warfare that perhaps we forget that originally and primarily they were spoken by Jesus in regard to his own death, for his friends.
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We are not just his servants or his disciples, but his friends! (14-15). And if loving one another is the hallmark of being his disciples, then even more, as his friends, we will want to follow his example and be like him, putting into practice the friendship of love which the Father has made known to him and which he in turn has made known to his disciples and to us.