Friend of Jesus

5 min read

15  “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17  This is my command: Love each other.”

John 15:15-17

There is so much we could unpack from these three verses.

The difference between a servant and a friend of Christ is a lot. A servant must do what the master wants but doesn’t care at all about how or why. On the other hand, a friend understands the what, the how, and the why and joyfully and voluntarily partners with the Friend in His business, not our own.

Am I ready to experience the joy of friendship with Christ or am I satisfied in being a servant who cares only for my own business?

But to reject this offer of friendship is to basically reject His election. Jesus will not offer His partnership unless He has already chosen us to be His friends. To reject that offer is to go the way of Judas. But to accept His offer of friendship and partnership is to follow Christ and to experience the joy of fruit—lots of fruit—eternal fruit.

And once we accept Jesus’s offer, our prayers will be “in Jesus’s name,” because our prayers will be for the profit of His business—to seek and to save the lost. And the Father will give us whatever we ask “in Jesus’s name.”

And at the center of it all—where the rubber meets the road—is obedience to His command: “Love each other.”

The “Love each other” command is the rubric by which we can tell if we are truly doing the Master’s business. In other words, you can always tell if someone is doing the Master’s business or if they are going into business for themselves by whether they obey the Love command or not.

The Love rubric is so important that if all we do is to focus our energies and attention on obedience to the Love command, we will “go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”

Everything else—our singing, our praying, our “going”, our evangelizing, our studying, everything—must be put on hold until we put love first. That is where our hearts should lean. I need to examine my heart in all things and ask if the love of Christ is what is driving me.

Because when we learn to put love first, our singing, our praying, our “going”, our evangelizing, our studying—everything—will be filled with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Father, You are Love, and Your love prevails. Forgive me when I pursue my own business instead of Yours. Thank You for Your mercy and grace and love. And make me one (and make us a community) who loves according to Your love command. In Jesus’s name. Amen.