YouVersion

So what are friends for? Today I rediscovered a friendship. I rediscover this friendship everyday and He is one of my very best friends. He always will be I am sure.

I read these words today and I was reminded of why brotherly and sisterly friendships are so important.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays 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 (ESV)

Jesus gave His life, so that we might live. Provided that we accept what He did for us on the cross. In this passage He told His disciples that He was going to die for them and was giving them instruction on how they were to treat one another as His follower. In the process Jesus clearly defines true friendship for us as believers in Him.

The definition? “Love one another as I have loved you.”

How many times have we called a person a “true” friend interacting with them for several days, months, or years only to lose contact with them never speaking with them again. Jesus was a true friend to His disciples and is a true friend to us, because He purposed to never lose contact with those who have professed a belief in Him. In talking with His disciples He made something absolute. The command here is clear; love as I loved, meaning love constantly, continually, and completely for all time.

Certainly this passage has more doctrinal and theological facets to it than just this, but I do not want to focus on those. My entry is simple today. I want to be a true friend to all those I know and fully embrace the kind of love that Jesus knew for those around Him. I want to fulfill this command moment by moment especially with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus spoke the words above to those who followed Him and I believe His message was and is to that end. We are to love each other completely and in absolute terms never to forsake one another.

As for my friends who are lost, I want to be that beacon of light where Jesus shines in me and the Holy Spirit works through me. I have no desire to “convert” them; that cannot be done by me. My desire is to serve them and show them that Jesus died and lives for them, because they are worth that life and love He has given me.

I cannot make them feel this love. I cannot force them to know and accept Jesus. I cannot “draw” them to the One who died for them. Only Jesus can do these things. However, I can be a true friend and that is what I intend to do.

See, it is simple. What are friends for? Brother, sister, or lost; they serve to glorify God through the Christ-like love that we can show them.