Are We His Friend?

Lesson #247

In the last lesson we covered the command to love one another as Jesus loved us. His love was a sacrificial love for our benefit of gaining salvation and for joy for Jesus for gaining a people for himself to enjoy forever in love and fellowship. In this lesson we will consider how to become God’s friend.

“You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14 ESV). When Jesus says, “You are my friends,” he is implying a stunning level of comfortable personal interaction with a holy God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. When we look back in the Old Testament we find that only Abraham (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8) and by implication Moses (Exodus 33:11) are called “friends of God.” Jesus extends this privilege of being his friends, if we obey his commandments. I wonder how many friends God has in the western church today based upon this criterion.

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15 NKJV). Again and again, Jesus spoke of those who were his servants: “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:26 ESV); “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:13, 16 ESV). Now if out of love for him, we obey him he will no longer call us servants, but friends. Servants are instruments, doing by command, not from intimate knowledge, but friends because of our intimate relationship are kept informed. Being born again makes us a member of God’s family, not one who is on the outside serving the family. If that relationship breaks down because of our disobedience, then our knowledge of what God is doing suffers and we become more like a servant who must simply obey his master. If one lacks knowledge of God’s will and feels distant from him, then maybe we need to check our obedience.

Prayer

Lord, it is an awesome thing to be considered your friend, but there is also a danger in this through loss of respect. Lord, it alarms me when I see how casual believers are in relationship to you. With friendship we are not to lose sight that you are the holy, sovereign God of the universe. Friendship implies intimacy and knowledge in relationship and is not to bring you down to our level. Lord, have mercy on us and help us not forget that you are a holy and righteous God, who by speaking words brought the universe into existence in which we live. As a friend, we need to respect that. Father, forgive us.