Friend

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:12-17)

What an honor to be called a friend of Jesus.  When Jesus was born, God revealed to us so much more about Himself than we ever knew before.  Isn’t that what we long for in our friends?  To know them and be known?  My closest friends know things about me nobody else does.  They have seen me at my worst and still love me.  I can trust them because they have proven faithful over the years and we have spent a lot of time getting to know one another.  And because I know them there are things that might sting from someone else but I can accept it from them. 

Jesus knows us better than anyone else ever could.  He knows every word we speak before it is even on our lips.  He knows the deepest parts of our hearts, our motivations, our fears, our desires, our temptations.  He knows what gifts we have and what we dream of.  Jesus knows our longings and our grief and our pain.  He is a great friend to us.  He knows all of these things and He chooses to be our friend.  He does not have to, He is not obligated.  Jesus makes the choice to be a friend to us sinners, and He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us.  That sweet baby lying in a manger came with the purpose of sacrificing His life so that we might be called friends of God.

Jesus called us to be friends like Him to the others.  What does it look like to lay our life down for our friends?  We are called to go and get to know them and love them and serve them and get out of our comfort zone.  There is no fear in that love.  We are living in such a time as this, where the world around us is preaching fear and isolation and division.  We have the opportunity, the responsibility, the calling to preach peace and love and community.  If there was ever a time for revival it’s now, the world is in desperate need of friendship, and there is no greater friend than Jesus.  Go and show them what that looks like.

Merry Christmas to you all!  I pray your hearts and your homes will be filled with peace and joy as you worship Jesus.