READ: 1 SAMUEL 18:1-5; 20:1-42; MATTHEW 11:19; ROMANS 5:9-11

“My father tried to kill me yesterday,” the one in royal attire said. “You were right—he wants to kill you too. You must go.”

The other, armed with a sword, only nodded. They had sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, and this terrible turn of events could not change that. Tears streamed down the faces of the two young men as they embraced. Then, the warrior turned and strode away through the field as the prince returned to his father.

Jonathan and David shared a deep friendship, although circumstances could have made them bitter enemies. What glued their friendship together?

Jonathan, the heir to the throne of Israel, was to be sovereignly usurped by a lowly shepherd boy. Yet instead of being angry with David, “he loved him as himself” (1 Samuel 18:3). The prince promised to protect David from Saul’s murderous plans and even risked his life for him. The sacrificial love Jonathan showed David preserved their close friendship—and saved David’s life. A true friend loves sacrificially, and Jonathan knew how to be that kind of friend.

Jonathan’s love points to Jesus, who performed the greatest act of sacrificial love when He died for us on the cross. We were His enemies, but Jesus became the friend of sinners—He faced the Father’s wrath, absorbed our punishment, and secured eternal life for us. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). John writes in his first epistle (or letter to the church) that Jesus’s death demonstrates God’s love for us—a genuine, sacrificial love willing to put aside everything for His beloved.

We may never be asked to physically die for someone, but we are called to daily put to death our selfishness in order to selflessly love others. When we live with a sacrificial mindset in a selfish world, we bear a vibrant testimony to the glory of the gospel. When we sacrificially love others, we point back to the love Jesus first showed us. • Celeste Ashley

• Can you think of a time someone showed you sacrificial love? What did they say or do?

• 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” As we rest in Jesus’s amazing love for us, we often find His love naturally overflows from us to others. Consider taking some time just to ponder God’s love for you and the sacrifice He made for you, becoming human and dying in your place.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16 (NIV)