So what does it mean to lay down one's life?  Folks, Jesus own death on the cross aside (the ultimate act of agape love), He is NOT asking us to do the same PHYSICALLY die for others. In his famous devotional, His Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers wrote beautifully about this passage: 

Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said to the Lord, "I will lay down my life for Your sake," and he meant it ( John 13:37 ). He had a magnificent sense of the heroic. For us to be incapable of making this same statement Peter made would be a bad thing -- our sense of duty is only fully realized through our sense of heroism. Has the Lord ever asked you, "Will you lay down your life for My sake?" ( John 13:38 ). It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways. There was only one bright-shining moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was there that He emptied Himself of His glory for the second time, and then came down into the demon-possessed valley (see  Mark 9:1-29 ). For thirty-three years Jesus laid down His life to do the will of His Father. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" ( 1 John 3:16 ). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so.  If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, "Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful." And Jesus says to us, "...I have called you friends...." Remain faithful to your Friend, and remember that His honor is at stake in your bodily life.

John, Jesus' dearest human friend, adding the following to this in 1 John 4:7-12 -- 

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us."

 

He then adds this in  1 John 5:1-3  --  "Whoever believes that Jesus is the  Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome."  The Greek word for "believe" here means complete and total surrender and not mere belief that God exists (as I've shared here often, even the devil and his demons have a simple "belief" in God but they are of course by no means saved -- see James 2:19 and "What does it mean to believe?").

 

In short, to "lay down your life" for you and I  means to live righteously (last week's study) and "all in" for Christ (a "must hear" message) with confident expectation in God's Plan:      

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us (laid down His life) to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:11-14, added emphasis mine)

 

Yes, someone -- be it cop, soldier or citizen -- who sacrifices his/her life to save others is admirable and heroic, but it does NOT carry the meaning of our passage and it most certainly does not earn us a place in heaven.  It may have even more meaning when done in agape love, but it can only have the meaning of John 15:13 when a genuine Christian (see below) LIVES in such a way that others are led to repent and enter into into a saving faith with the one true Savior.  Is that you? 

On the other hand, there are those whose actual deaths may fall in line with John 15:13. In fact, all of Jesus' closest friends (the Apostles) except for John were killed for the faith (John was tortured but survived). Here's a modern day example: On December 31, 2017, Douglas County (CO) Sheriff's Deputy Zack Parrish was killed in the line of duty. Zack was a born again, "all in" believer who actively and sacrificially lived his faith in accordance with our passage.  While he was not killed for sharing his faith, the Gospel was shared powerfully at Zack's funeral. In its wake, many, including a number of his partners who gathered at my Centurion/FCPO "cop church" fellowship, have since come to a genuine saving faith in Christ. That is indeed an example of John 15:13 in action, but, rather than dying to leave such a legacy, our Lord here is calling us to radically  lay down our lives by LIVING for Him in such way that others will likewise come to know Him.  Are you doing that?

Yes, Jesus paid it all for us by dying on the cross, but He is NOT asking us to physically do the same. On the contrary, this verse means so much more  than dying physically for others. If it meant only that, there would be very few of is who could or would ever fulfill this calling, largely because we would lack the opportunity to do so. And, of course, one could do so only once!  Rather, our Lord is commanding us to repeatedly LIVE out John 15:13 as part of our Christian lifestyle. Jesus is calling those who are His "friends" (born again believers) to "lay down" (love sacrificially) our lives in His service for one another and for the lost. When you sacrificially go out of your way live out and share Christ's love with others, you are loving and laying down your life for that person. This is what Jesus had in mind here!  

Beyond that, there are in fact many who have sacrificed their physical lives so that others might live, and we rightly honor them for doing so. In fact, I believe that most of us who serve would sacrifice our own lives to save others -- especially the lives of our "friends" (brother and sister officers/soldiers). However, unless we die having first been born again in Christ (a Christian as God defines it), this sacrifice will not earn us a "pass" when it comes to where you will spend eternity.  Our sin is the issue here, and it is only "in Christ" that our sin debt can be paid. 

Accordingly, if you are reading this and have never surrendered in faith to God in Christ, I can't encourage you enough to do so TODAY (tomorrow is promised to no one).  Take in the info I've shared for you below and open your heart to the One John 15:13 is really about.  

Likewise, if you DO know Him as Lord and Savior but have fallen away or not otherwise living "all in" for Him in accordance with His call to us in today's passage, then I also urge you to come to Him in prayer and repentance and ask Him to help you do so.  Praise God, He is faithful and true to restore all who cry out to Him in genuine repentance and faith.