"I Have Called You Friends"

The Office of the President of the United States of America is said to be the most powerful position in the world. What would it be like to be a friend of the person who holds that office? Think about it, you are with the President of the United States and he goes around and introduces you to people and says “I’d like for you to meet my friend.” How would that make you feel? I am certain you would feel validated as a person and friend to this most powerful individual. What is even more exciting to me is that I have a friend who is the creator of the entire universe. He is the most Powerful and Almighty God. The God of the entire universe calls me His friend.

Jesus told His disciples that He no longer called them servants, but friends. Those men whom he had invested so much time with were His close personal friends. All of us have friends, but have you ever thought about what it means to be a “friend of Jesus”? As His disciple, we are also His friend. Here are a few characteristics of this friendship.

1. Obligation/Responsibility—all of us who have friends know that friendship comes with some obligations. Our friendship with Jesus isn’t any different. He calls us friends “if we do what he commands” (John 15:14) and what He commands is for us to “love each other” (John 15:17). You want to be a friend of God then we are obligated to do what Jesus commands and that is love each other.

2. Transparency/Intimacy—Jesus held nothing back from His disciples. “A servant doesn’t know his master’s business” (John 15:15). But Jesus has made known to us everything He learned from the Father and because of that, we are His friend. Jesus desires an intimate and transparent relationship with us. A friendship where we can tell Him the deepest and even the darkest problems we face and a friendship where He can tell us, through the working of the Holy Spirit, everything that we need to know. That is His desire.

3. Service—even though the disciples were friends of Jesus, they viewed themselves as His servants. In the introductions to many of the Epistles, Peter, James, and Paul all introduced themselves as “servants of Christ”. Friends are also servants. They do what they can to help each other. Although Jesus doesn’t look upon us and treat us as servants we do serve the living Lord.

If you know Jesus as your personal Savior and live as His disciple, you are God’s friend; you are a friend of the Creator, a friend of the one who is the maker of the entire universe, a friend of the most powerful and Almighty God. Meditate and contemplate on those words for just for a minute (I am a friend of the Most High God)! God desires to be your friend, don’t turn Him away.