Jesus the friend

John 15

Part 2

How can we be fruitful as Christians?  In this short series we focus on one passage, John 15:1-17 and draw on some other scriptures, to try to answer the question.

In John 15:15 Jesus says, “I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.” 

 Think about why God created humankind: it was for us to be His friends, not because He needed company - the three persons in the one God are already somehow a community - but because His love overflows. He created humankind as a growing community of communities because no one person is enough to reflect the nature of God in isolation, except Jesus who is the exact imprint of God (Hebrews 1:3). So, the Cross and resurrection are about restoring that friendship with God, friendship with one another and restoring good order in the earth, or friendship with creation. 

 We have a simple message - the essence of the gospel is about friendship!   

 In John 15 we are invited into friendship in at least two ways.   

 First, in ‘abiding’ or ‘remaining' or ‘living’ in Jesus. It implies very close friendship or communion, as we draw life from Him. I love the translation of verse 4 by JB Philips, who published the first paraphrase of the New Testament in modern English in 1958.  Verse 4 reads “You must go on growing in Me and I will grow in you.” Any friendship grows as we intentionally spend time together and do things together. 

 Second, we see the invitation to friendship in verses 14-17. At first, verse 14 seems strange: we are friends if we obey His commandments. But it becomes clearer when we remember what His commandments are. It really boils down to the New Commandment to love one another. 

 God wants us to become more like Him; He loves people perfectly so if we are to be like Him we need to love people too. 

 For the full article on how God invites us to friendship not service and how we develop friendship with God, see Storehouse ‍