His love for David was so great that he was prepared to say, as John the Baptist did centuries later, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). He beheld in David what he had once dreamed he might become. All the commendable traits of the two characters were cemented together by true affection, and Jonathan awoke to the fact that happiness consists in loving rather than in being loved.

 Christ so loved us that He voluntarily divested Himself of every divine prerogative (Phil. 2:6-8) that He might plant the leaven of truth in every man (John 1:9).