NOTES for Joh 15:12-17
In this passage the Lord reveals to the disciples the essence of the commandment He leaves them. And the measure of love to which He calls them proves equal to death. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”—such is this measure. Jesus calls us to forget ourselves, not to think about our own convenience or advantage, “not to seek our own,” to give rather than demand. To die to oneself and rise again for one's friends: this is the new commandment.
We know that Christ Himself loved us to that same supreme measure, giving His life on the Cross. As we try to love our neighbors, we gradually enter into this mystery of divine love. By freely fulfilling this covenant, we cease to be slaves and become His friends, who “know what the master is doing,” who truly understand what Jesus “heard from the Father.”