Topic: John 15:11-17
"And you are My friends if you obey Me. I no longer call you slaves, for a master doesn't confide in slaves; now you are My friends, proved by the fact that I have told you everything the Father told Me" (John 15:14,15).
How many really close friends do you have? Not many, I think you will agree, for a close friend is one in whom you confide regularly. who knows you just as you are and loves you just the same.
So it is with our heavenly Friend, the one who "sticks closer than a brother." And how do we earn the right to become that kind of intimate friend? Simply by obeying His commands, "which are not grievous," but really are necessary to keep us in the straight and narrow path and to give us a happy, blessed life.
In a sense, of course, we are still His bondslaves, His servants, but He deigns to call us His friends if we love Him enough to obey His commands. And He proves His friendship by sharing with us all that the Father has shared with Him. What greater friend could we have?
Jesus not only called His disciples friends, but He also treated them as friends. He opened His mind to them, made known His plans and acquainted them with the plan of His coming. His death, His resurrection and ascension. He followed this proof of His friendship with the actual title of friend.
Oh, that you and I might see Him today truly as our friend - one who sticks closer than a brother or sister or mother or father.
As I take inventory of my real friends today, I will especially include the one Friend above all friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of the supernatural life which God has commanded me to live.
