“Greater love has no one than this that
he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command
I
no longer call you servants, because a servant doesn’t know his master’s
business.
Instead, I have called you friends, for everything
I have learned from my Father
I have made known to you.” John 15:13, 15
(NIV)
This scripture tells us that there is no love stronger than
the Lord’s love for us. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus
spoke to the disciples and told them, “I now call you friends.”
In our world, today, when we call someone a friend it means
we have a relationship with them. When Jesus used the word to describe that
relationship with us, it becomes more special. He has shared something with us;
we have obeyed Him. He honors us when he calls us ‘friend’.
In today’s world, we have a relaxed meaning of the word ‘friend’;
relationships are more casual and less long term. Our teenagers have the term
“best friend forever’ (BFF.) But how long does ‘forever’ last? Those in this
generation want one of their
relationships to be permanent. But, alas, certain issues cause these desired
relationships to languish. One moves away, one gets married and the other stays
single for a while, they might find something that causes them not to accept
the other’s way of thinking.
But, with Jesus’ saying he calls us friend we have a
stronger bond, when we obey Him.
Song:.Now I Belong to Jesus
Graphic: solid rockchristianchurch.org