Friends

John 15:9-17 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 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. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 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. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.”

 

The term friend is used pretty loosely lately. It seems that for most people, a stranger is a friend that they haven’t met yet. My granddaughters go to the beach or a playground and immediately run over to the other kids around their age and ask if they would like to be friend with each other; which really means “Would you like to play together” in a temporary bond of friendship, because they will most likely never see each other again. Since I come from a pre-computer/smart phone/electronic table era, I am not linked to social media as much as most people today. Television was in “black and white” with only 13 channels on the dial for Pete’s sake. I heard that the phrase Pete’s Sake essentially uses Pete a mild substitute for God or Christ in this expression of annoyance or frustration. One speculative theory is that someone replaced Jesus or God with another religious figure—St. Peter. We shouldn’t be using God’s name in vain anyway, but that’s another post topic.

 

The word “Friend” is defined by the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as: One who is attached to another by affection; one who entertains for another sentiments of esteem, respect and affection, which lead him to desire his company, and to seek to promote his happiness and prosperity; opposed to foe or enemy. As kids, we actually played outside with our neighborhood friends and it was great times. Today, I have a Facebook account, but could not tell you off the top of my head how many “Friends” that I have on that social media, and I only connect with a small number of them. There was even a hit TV Sitcom called “Friends” that ran from 1994-2004. Seriously, this “friend-trend" has been taking true friendship a bit vainly. 

 

But, Jesus clearly commands His believing Followers to love one another and quantified this godly love by stating: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” The Greek word used throughout this passage is “agape”, not “phila” (brotherly love), not “storge” (familial love), or “eros” (romantic love), not “pragma” ( practical love, grounded in duty, commitment, and practicality), not “ludus (playful love), not “philautia” (self-love), not “mania” (obsessive love), but God’s pure, selfless, compassionate, Divine and unconditional love. The love above all other loves. 

 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ calls us His “friends”, if we do whatever He commands us. He died for your sins so that your sins are forgiven and salvation is yours by God’s love and grace through your faith. By this justification through Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we are saved from God’s wrath on sin, adopted into the family of God, given citizenship in the kingdom of Heaven, and eternal life. Jesus chose us and calls us his friend, and what a friend we have in Jesus! He’ll be there for you. Amen.

 

In Christ, Brian