The Sunday News
LAST week we began an instalment on understanding God as a friend. He is not in the business of just taking you as a creation but has always desired that you are closer to him as a friend.
Reading the New Testament one recognises the many references that are titles for Christians. I find the most wonderful being the one given by the Lord Jesus when he referred to his disciples and followers as “You are my friends”
I made mention of this verse last week and will bring it to focus today when Jesus says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you. Ye did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:13-16).
It is indeed a very wonderful and beautiful thing that the Son of God called such as the disciples were, and such as we are, His friends. I do not think there is a greater or more beautiful description of a person in any language than that word “friend”. It is the most intimate title in all human relationships. Every other relationship that we can think of may exist without this. Perhaps we think that the marriage relationship is the most intimate, but it is possible for that relationship to exist without friendship. Happy indeed is the man whose wife is his friend, and happy is the wife whose husband is her friend. It is a very close relationship between children and parents and parents and children, but it is a great thing when the father can call his son his friend, and when he can say, not “my son”, but “my friend”. Besides, again, it is a great thing when a child can say, not only “my father”, but “my friend”: “my father is my friend” — “my mother is my friend”. Friendship is always just that extra mile in any relationship.
When Jesus said: “Ye are my friends”, He was going beyond “Ye are My disciples” and “Ye are My followers”. He could have called them by many other names, but when He said: “Ye are my friends” He went beyond anything else. The Lord Jesus found the most complete satisfaction of His heart in this word. To say “Ye are my friends” was as far as anybody could possibly go. Really, there is nothing beyond it. You reach the end of all relationships when you really come to friendship. It is rich and precious to be called thus!
There are certain features that are a trademark to our friendship with Jesus. Firstly he brings an unexpected change as we read in verse 15. He refers first to a slave-master relationship where Jesus is creator, and we are His created beings, Jesus is King, and we are His subjects, Jesus is Master, and we are His slaves. He is Commander in Chief, and we are His foot soldiers. (Jn. 13:13, 16.) But now the reading of verse 15 changes all that. He calls us friends we are on intimate terms and in close association. Dear reader a slave or soldier is not owed any explanation. You just do what you are told. Jesus did not merely tell us what to do. He actually revealed His redemptive plan to us.
It is true that we may at times befriend a stranger; but we espouse all the interests of a friend, and concern ourselves in all his cares: thus Christ takes believers to be his friends. He visits them and converses with them as his friends. He bears with them and makes the best of them. He is afflicted in their afflictions, and takes pleasure in their prosperity. He pleads for them in heaven and takes care of all their interests there. Our God is always a wow! Who would have imagined the creator of the universe would become our friend! This is indeed an unexpected change. We must cherish this doctrine with deep honour and respect.
Secondly He gives an unprecedented charge as we see in verses 12-14, 17. Love is central in this passage. It is the main theme. There is a “Command” in v. 12, 17, 13:34. This is not a suggestion, not some vague ideal, it is to be a daily reality. It is the mark of the people of God. Jesus gives a clear command, a divine mandate, and a heavenly charge. You must love one another. Present continuous tense “keep on loving”. Even when it looks like there is no hope just love He says.
We need to ask ourselves if we are growing in this love? It is the condition of our friendship. He has put a supreme standard. He made an example as the writer to the Romans in chapter 5:7-8 says of Jesus: For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He shed his blood so that we may be oGaz’ bakhe! Such was his friendship standard. Likewise, our call to love is a call to self-sacrifice.
The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Lay aside my own plans, preferences, conveniences, for the sake of others.
This brings us to our third point. An unexpected change, and unprecedented charge, and . . . He makes an unconditional choice as seen in verse 16. Our friendship with Christ was not initiated by us. In John 10:3 we read the sheep hear the shepherd’s voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
God set His favour and affection upon us while we were still His enemies. He sent His only Son from heaven to enter time and space, to take on human flesh, to bear our guilt on the cross, to die as our substitute, to rise from the dead and to prepare a place for us, all while you and I were still dead in our sin. He sent His Spirit to breathe life in us while we were still spiritual corpses.
Why? Out of His great love, so that He would show Himself as a sovereign and gracious God to whom all glory and praise is due. I hear him clearly in these verses. In Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, and then goes on to say in 1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Suka mani how else would you want to be befriended! One who befriends you even when you unfriended him!
My parting shot to you is we cannot continue to be friends with the world through ungodly behaviour. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
