Jesus, My Best Friend
John 15:9 As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 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.
It is amazing to realize that we have the opportunity not only to worship God, not only to reverence him, and stand in awe of him, but we were invited to be friends with God. I don’t believe that any religion of this world offers such an idea, that one might be friends with the deity, with the God who is reverenced, feared, and worshiped.
What we learn from this text is that Jesus wants a relationship with his followers--not just a religious devotion--but a loving, sincere, and committed relationship. In verse nine, Jesus says that as the Father has loved Him, He is also loved us. This makes the relationship between Jesus and father God the example and pattern of the kind of relationship we should have with Jesus and with one another.
There are three levels of relationships: 1. There are acquaintances; 2. There are colleagues/co-workers/partners: 3. And there are true friends.
From the civil rights movement, there is the story of a reporter in an urban area who saw a girl carrying a little boy. She seemed to be struggling to hold him. The reporter asked, “Isn’t he heavy?” The girl answered, “He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.”
An acquaintance, co-worker, or someone who has needs or make demands, can get heavy. This is because there is no deep sense of connection with such persons. However, true friends don’t invoke such feelings. True friends are not "heavy."
Following, we will look at three characteristics of being a friend to others and best friends with Jesus:
1. True friends experience a high level of agreement.
2, True friends are mutually loyal and dependable. (Not just in "fair-weather")
3. True friends confide in one another and empower one another
Abraham was a friend of God: Isa. 41:8 “But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend.
James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
1. Friends experience a high level of agreement
15:9 As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
15 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
Friendship with Jesus comes out of our willingness to receive his love and abide in his love. He also stated if we keep his commandments, we will abide in his love. The decision to follow Jesus' commands and teachings is an act of agreement. We've decided that we don’t have anything better than with Jesus offers. We seek to trust in Jesus in the same manner in which Jesus trusted in father God.
Jesus makes the statement, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” On the surface, this does not seem like a statement that friends would make. However, when friends are in agreement, they are very willing to do what is asked of them, realizing there is a mutual willingness to do so.
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (KJV)
The sense of the Hebrew text here is interesting. The word agreed is from a Hebrew word meaning "to fix, appoint, assemble, meet, set, betroth; to meet, to meet by appointment." The sense is not simply two people walking in a common direction because they agree to do so. It means agreeing to make an appointment to come together, and from there set out on a journey to a destination together. It is like saying to someone, "I’ll meet you at Starbucks and we can go to the restaurant from there."
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible captures the definition best: Amos 3:3 "Do two walk together, unless they have made an appointment?”
The focus of true friendship is not trying to agree on every single thing, but rather always being willing to come together in order to discover how to work together.
2. Friends are mutually loyal and dependable
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.
On the evening of his death, Jesus Christ described the need for loyalty, dependability and sacrifice as a component of our friendship with him. Speaking to his disciples Jesus said: John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
He then defines the greatest love in which one will lay his life down for his friends. Jesus was talking about His sacrifice. We should understand that laying one’s life down in death is not the only way to understand the meaning of true friendship. In fact, if we cannot lay our life down for one another while we live, it is unlikely that we will die for someone.
The sense of this text is that you will do for your friends what you would not do for others. There’s nothing too hard, nothing to bothersome, nothing too much for a true friend. In that sense, married couples should be friends, family members should be friends, believers in a local church should be friends. In this light, there is no greater relationship than friendship.
3. Friends confide in one another and empower one another
John 15:14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 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.
Jesus does not relate to us as servants in His house, but as family members. As members of the family, we are invited to share in the knowledge of "family business" and participate fully. We are empowered to act, not only to take orders.
As friends with Abraham, God shared vital information/purpose with him. In doing so, God showed both His confidence in him and empowered him to serve divine purpose.
Genesis 18:17 The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him? 19 No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him." (RSV)
