Friends of Jesus

John 15:14-15 (WEBBE): ¹⁴You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

Jesus came to Earth to restore us to intimate relationship with Him. In John 15 He says that we are His friends. Think about this for a moment – the Almighty God wants us to have a close relationship with Him!

Servants are in a kind of relationship with their masters, but there is a huge divide between them. Their masters expect them to follow their commands blindly, not sharing their thoughts and motives. Friendship is very different from that indeed. Jesus says here that he shared everything that He heard from the Father with us. He does give us commands, but in the context of a deep, caring relationship.

Let us now go back a few verses to see what it is that Jesus commands us to do.

John 15:12-13 (WEBBE): ¹²“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus commands us to love one another. But He first loved us, so much so that He lay down His very life for us! He doesn’t expect us to blindly follow His command to love, but instead demonstrated that love to us first!

Matthew 11:28-30 (WEBBE): ²⁸“Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus paid the difficult price, so that now our burden may be light!