Do you ever think about Jesus as your friend? What does that mean? I think that the word “friend” may be the second most abused word in the English language, the first being the word “love.” It has always been a term used loosely, but the rise of social media had diminished it further, so that it can even be applied to people you don’t even know.

Even though we use the word so lightly, we all know what it ought to mean. We long for those deep connections. We wish for someone out there to know us fully and love us anyway. We were made for relationship. Marriage should be the ultimate earthly expression and fulfilment of this need, but often is not. And we need friendships beyond this.

In church we hear about Jesus as our friend. We even sing about it. We know that he illustrated that friendship with his own blood. We can have no better friend, yet we can find it hard to internalize this reality. Jesus is God. He’s out there somewhere in a place we call Heaven. Unlike those who walked with Him while He was here, we can’t see Him, converse with Him as they did, or exchange a loving embrace. Our friend seems a very long way off.

That is why I think these chapters in John that we have been studying over the last few months are so special. On the night before He will be taken from them, Jesus prepares His closest friends not only for what is about to happen, but also for the time when He will truly be taken from them to dwell with the Father until that day when He returns to rule the Earth.

He instructs them repeatedly to love each other, illustrating what He means by taking on a slaves job of washing their feet. He tells them how much He loves them, and tells them how they can return that love. Over and over we read that keeping His commandments is the way that we show our love for Him, and then he says again that His commandment is that we love each other. This love is the true spiritual fruit that all of His children will produce.

It is in this context that we find our passage for this week, John 15:12-17. It begins and ends with the commandment to love each other, and between we find the ultimate description of friendship, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (v. 13) Jesus has already proven Himself a friend to us. Will we prove ourselves friends to Him?

We need not, and in fact cannot, do it alone. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us. If you belong to Him, He is not just with you. He is in you!

I call you friends, and I really want to see you on Sunday!

love y’all