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. John 15: 13-15, NKJV
Dear Lord, please make Your Word plain to us as we study, for Christ’s sake. Amen
During the past week we celebrated Valentine’s Day. In the Republic of Panama, where I am from, it is also celebrated, in a very big way, as Friendship Day. I resist the commercialization of holidays. I believe that the commercial aspect of the celebration tends to take away from the sincerity and spontaneity of the event. A day like Valentines’s Day/Friendship Day would be much more meaningful, I believe, without all the spending; because true love, is priceless.
The promise in our text for today was already fulfilled for the disciples to whom it was originally made. I also believe that we, as modern day disciples, can claim it as our own. It is the promise of friendship with Jesus, as we live in obedience to His commands. Jesus makes three affirmations about true friendship; the kind of friendship He offers to all:
The greatest expression of love is to be willing to sacrifice one’s life for his/her friends. An interesting aspect of the kind of friendship Jesus offers is that He considers us friends whether or not we respond to that friendship. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, referring to His betrayer said, ” ‘Friend, do what you came for’ ” (Matthew 26: 50), and then willingly went to the cross and died for the sins of Judas, and of the rest of the world. You see my friends, Jesus was Judas’ friend even if Judas was not Jesus’ friend. The high quality of friendship that Jesus offers is of the same high quality as that of His love; it does not have to be responded to in order to exist. It is self-existent.
Jesus considers obedience to His commands as an adequate expression of our true friendship. Someone has said, and I agree, that, “you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” In our world, and especially in a capitalist society, we have capitalized on that statement (no pun intended). But we have decided what we will give to express our love. We give everything that money can buy (jewelry, flowers, clothing). And the things that are priceless by virtue of their worth (self, time, attention) are often missing from our relationships. Jesus asks of us, ” ‘If you love Me, keep (pay attention to) My commandments’ ” (John 14: 15).
I call you friends, because whatever I hear from My Father I share with you. One of the things that best friends do is share information with each other. Jesus confirmed that. He even took it further when He prayed, “that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17: 21). He prayed that we would share the oneness that He had with His Father! It does not get better than that!
That is the kind of friendship Jesus offers. I pray that if you have not known Him as your friend, you might begin to get acquainted with Him today!