Jesus is Our Friend

Reflections on John 15:9-17

I want to start with a proposition that may seem obvious to all of you, but bears repeating. God is not our enemy, but our friend. God, the almighty, all powerful, and just. God is not against us. God is on our side. God is our friend. And this is in spite of our behavior. Even though we disregard God from time to time. Even though we don’t nurture our relationship with God as we should. Even though at times we have doubts about God. God remains our friend.
And this is real grace. Amazing grace. And great condescension. That the creator of the universe is even interested in us and wants to relate to us as friends when we aren’t even very good servants. Jesus reconciled us to Himself while we were enemies. We should remain reconciled now that we are friends. He also loved us while we were enemies. We should love Him now that we are friends. He loves us without any benefit from us, for He needs nothing. We should love Him because of the benefit we do receive. Jesus leads the way. We could at least follow. But the truth is that we consistently fail to do all these things. John Chrysostom said, “We have been ransomed by Christ, and are the slaves of gold. We proclaim the sovereignty of one and obey the other.”
The friendship that we have with God is initiated by Him, and not by us. This is what Christ is saying in the passage read for us this morning. Christ initiates the relationship, for our benefit and not His own. Christ chose us to be friends not for His own benefit. Christ needs nothing, lacks nothing. There is nothing we can give that will make Christ complete. Christ initiated this relationship, not for his benefit, but for our benefit. Nor did Christ choose us because of our accomplishments or how good we are. The truth is that Jesus chose to be our friends because we needed His friendship. We need it because He finds us sick. Jesus is the friend of sinners, of which we are the worst. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and that describes us. Christ chose us and befriended us so that we could become well, that we would become better people as a result of this friendship offered to us by Christ. God sees us and knows what we can become. God “sees something in us” and wants to befriend us so as to help lift us up and bring out the good potential that is in us all.
Now it is clear that although Christ calls us friends, that we are friends of God, that does not mean we are buddies. There is no question who has the rank in this relationship. It is not an equal relationship among peers. We remain servants and we must submit to God and obey His commands. By no means are we in an equal relationship because we are friends. However, and this is so important, we do submit and obey God, not out of fear or by force, not by means of oppression or with bitter resentment, but as friends, as acts of love, as ways to nurture this great privileged relationship we find ourselves in.
We are God’s servants. But we are not pawns. We are not expendable to God. We are not faceless cogs in God’s divine plan. Nor are we just a number on God’s employee list. Nor do we have to make an appointment to talk to God, only get a glimpse of Him at the “company picnic.” We can have a word with God at any time and God knows us on a first name basis. In fact, God knows us better than we know ourselves. And so we serve God, acknowledging the supreme power of God and that God is just and does hold us accountable. Punishment and destruction remains in God’s arsenal, if you will. God is no push over. We should always maintain a reverent fear of God. Yet, at the same time, we are compelled to be good and faithful servants out of love. We serve God, not because we fear God, but because we love God, who calls us His friends.
Last week, Jadon and I, along with his Tiger Cub den, got to take a tour of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Sharon Morgan, I believe, was the name of our guide. She has worked for the Enquirer for 21 years. She started as a young woman, only given work on the weekends. She worked on the weekends for eight years, until she finally was given more responsibility. We expressed how impressed we were with her dedication all those years. She admitted it was tough, but she loves it. She loves the newspaper. She loves working here. And what other reason than love would be a motivation to stick it out so long, especially when you have the option to walk away. And that’s the point here. This is why God wants to be our friend. This is why we are to be motivated to serve God out of love and not of fear. Because love is the motivator that lasts. Only love keeps us going through the tough times. Only love enables us to stick it out when we always have the freedom to walk away. And as servants of God, the freedom to walk away from God is always an option. God does not have a chain around us or a gun pointed at our heads. This is the truth of the matter, only love is sufficient to motivate us to serve God for a life time.
And what is our command from God? What is our job? To love one another. We are to love. And we love because God first loved us. God exemplifies self-giving love to us. We look to Christ as our first and greatest example of love. You could say to be a disciple of Jesus is to be a student of love. We look to Christ to show us how to love so that we can love one another. We are loved first. Then we are commanded to love. Christ loved us first. Christ chose us first to be His friends. The relationship was established first. Then came the command, the appointment, to bear fruit that lasts.
And this is the fruit that lasts: love for one another. I was privileged to see that love before my eyes these past few days, witnessing the celebration of the life of Patti Brown and the celebration of the marriage of Yeti Osinbowale and Ade Okunye. The love everyone had for the other who had been brought together in a time of need, the friendship that was on display, I can only say that God was pleased, indeed was present with us in a very real way. These were no throw away experiences, like yesterday’s news. These were events that will carry lasting memory, the funeral, the wedding. Fruit was produced over the past few days that will last among those of us that were privileged to share in thess acts of love for one another.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 13, we are told that these three abide: faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these three is love. Love is the most abiding, the most lasting, of all the fruits. Love is the summation of all the commandments of God. To love, this is our primary task, as friends of God and as servants of God. And the extent to which we produce this love cannot be exhausted in our life, and pushes us, compels us, to contemplate a love for each other that goes far beyond our comfort level. For we are called not just to love our family, which sometimes can be hard indeed. Nor are we called only to love our friends, or friends of friends. Yes, we are called, commanded, to love our enemies. When we love our enemies, we are realizing a depth of love that very few achieve.
A few chapters later in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 28, is a verse that drives our mission and points to what is at stake as we make our feeble attempts to love one another, even the unlovable. God have mercy on us. The verse says, “Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” This verse points to where all of history is headed, to a point where God may be all in all. When we love others, that is, submit to others, for love is expressed in submission to the one you love, then we are bringing about God’s will to be all in all. What I’m saying is this: when we love our enemies, we are claiming them for God. We are loving them as God loves them. We are loving God through them. We love others not for their own sake, and not for our own sake, but for God’s sake. As imitators of God, we love those of whom we will receive no benefit. We love those who do not love us first. We love those who are our enemies, because even while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. That proves God’s love toward us. Can we prove our love towards God by following His example? How far we fall short. How amazing is God’s grace.