I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. (Jn.15:15-17).

This is one of those texts that gives us comfort. To know that Jesus would call us a friend not only makes him approachable but also elevates our status with God. Both of those truths are good news. If Jesus were simply Lord, we might still see him as unapproachable like a CEO of a huge company we might work for. He might know our name. He might sign our paycheck. He might even show up to make a speech on employee appreciation day. He wouldn’t, however, drop by our office or the loading dock to see how the family was doing and have a cup of coffee. He wouldn’t invite us home for Christmas dinner or ask us over to play cards with him and his wife. We would still sense the immense gulf between labor and management.

Unlike the hypothetical CEO above, Jesus offers each of us friendship. Friendship is the revelation that he is willing to confide in us the secret things that the Father has revealed to him. He offers us the esteemed position of confidant. He is willing to spend time with us, hang out with us, and share his heart and his plans. That is an amazing offer from the one who has been exalted to the highest place and given a name that is above every name (Phil. 2:9).

For most of us, that offer is both exciting and humbling. And yet, what many believers don’t realize is the position of friend is not automatic. Not every believer will be a friend of Jesus. John Bevere puts it this way in his book, Drawing Near. He writes, “Often we hear messages that proclaim all who receive Jesus are now his friends. Hopefully, you now realize God is not a cheap, group friend. Once while in prayer He cried out, ‘Ask my people if they want me to be as faithful to them as they have been to me?’ Jesus did not come as a savior so everyone could join the ‘born again club.’ He is looking for relationships with those who love Him as He loved them; here we find friendship.”

I have to agree with John because the verse just before the text quoted above declares, “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you” (Jn. 15:14). He goes on to say that he has chosen those as friends who bear fruit in the kingdom. So obedience and fruitfulness define those whom Jesus will call friends as well as their willingness to love one another. In some ways he defines the essence of discipleship here…love God, love one another, and bear fruit in the kingdom.

In the past fifty years, the theological pendulum has swung from the old hell fire and brimstone preaching of some evangelists to a total focus on grace. We are certainly saved by grace, but grace has been popularly defined by many believers as a license to live however they choose to live and still walk into heaven with head held high. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran priest who stood his ground against Hitler in Nazi Germany. He was eventually executed. One of his greatest posits was that there is a real cost to discipleship. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. On many occasions, Jesus talked about the necessity of bearing a cross if we are to follow him.

Without lapsing into legalism or salvation by works, we must still acknowledge that this who simply hear what Jesus says but do not put those things into practice have missed the mark and the relationship that Jesus desires. Our obedience and fruitfulness are not efforts to be saved, but our genuine response to being saved. If we want friendship with Jesus, it begins with obedience and not obedience only when our flesh agrees with his command. True obedience is measured by our willingness to surrender to the commands our flesh wants to reject.

I’m writing this as a reminder to myself as well as anyone else reading this. It is easy to coast and stay in our comfort zone when it comes to serving Jesus. Often, in my own life, the issue is not my involvement in sin, but my passivity when it comes to doing good…sharing my faith with a stranger, reaching out to the poor, acting in loving ways toward those who continue to hurt me, and so forth. I do want to be a friend of a Jesus, but I must remember that the offer does have conditions. But to settle for less, is to cheat myself and to devalue the price he paid to make that offer. I hope you are his friend.

Blessings in Him…