Friend of God – Devotions for 2-27-25
John 15:15 “No longer to I call you servants… but I have called you friends…”
We all need friends. Friends help make life more enjoyable. Friends help us get through hard times. Friends come alongside us when trouble comes. Friends are there in the good times and make them even better. We all need friends.
In John 15, after talking about abiding in Jesus who is the vine with us being the branches grafted into Him, Jesus turns to a different metaphor. He says that He no longer calls us servants, but friends. There is a huge difference between a servant and a friend. A servant has to do what you ask or tell them to; a friend will do them because of being your friend. A servant doesn’t have to like you, a friend already does like you. A servant doesn’t have a choice to be with you, a friend is free to leave if they wanted to. A servant is forced, a friend is by choice.
Jesus is the God of creation. He created everything including you and me. He could force us to do anything. He could make us be His servants. The bible is full of word pictures where all creation, or all people or a certain group of people bows down and worships God or does something because God commanded it of them. Those were the actions of servants.
The Apostles, though they heard these words from Jesus saying they were no longer servants but friends of Jesus, still went on through the rest of their life and ministry and called themselves servants of Jesus Christ. Nowhere in their own words do they refer to themselves as friends, just servants of Christ. But Jesus called them friends. He wanted the best with them.
Yes, we who believe in Jesus owe Him everything. We owe Him our lives, our money, our time, everything. In that way we are like servants. But, Jesus doesn’t want us to live in a way where we feel compelled to do what He wants. He doesn’t want us to feel like servants who have to do whatever He asks without the desire to do it from our heart.
I had a friend who looked at God in the way of a servant. He said that being a Christian was so hard. He said there was always a long list of things to do and things not to do. He was living as a servant, a slave and he didn’t enjoy being a Christian. I wonder if he loved God at all, it seemed rather that he was afraid of God. I told my friend that I didn’t see God like that. I pointed to the passage where God gives us the desires of our heart. My way of viewing God and His calls for us to live a certain way was that the closer we were to God, the more we loved God, the more what we want would be what He wanted. It was not to be that I bend my will by force to do what God wanted, but rather that I loved God so much that what He wanted was what I wanted. Then my desires would be His desires, and His desires would be my desires. When that happened, He would be truly giving me the desires of my heart. And we would be friends.
That is what true friendship is, where two people walk together with many of the same likes and dislikes. What one wants, the other wants too. What one enjoys, the other enjoys.
That is why friends go golfing together, because they both like it. That is why friends go out for lunch together, because they like spending time together. That is why friends go to a baseball game together, because they like doing things together.
Jesus calls us to get beyond being a servant and become His friend. What will you and Jesus do together as friends? He has a million things He likes, where your likes and His likes meet, do them together with your friend, Jesus.
Pastor Gary.
Leave a Reply