Today's Scripture: John 15:11-17
Friends. We all like to have a good friend or two. They're the ones outside your immediate family that you spend time with in hobbies, or sports, or other shared interests. And, quite often, good friends form a support network that we can lean on in difficult times.
In today's passage, Jesus teaches us about a friendship that comes with a new life in Him.
Usually friendships are formed from common ground. Kids grow up on the same street or block and grow up to become lifelong friends. Two people meet in school and form a lasting friendship. Some guys meet on the lake while fishing and become fishing buddies. Two ladies meet while out running errands, decide to have lunch together, and forge a friendship that goes beyond mere acquaintances.
But Jesus flips the script on all that. He said to his followers, "I have called you friends," and then again, "you did not choose Me but I chose you." He seeks us out first, and then the common ground is formed, and that common ground is love. As a friend of God, we are to first love him, and then love each other in the same way he loves us. That is a deep, abiding, sacrificial love. It's an unselfish love.
Part and parcel of being called a friend by Jesus is the fact that he reveals the things of God to us. He spent three years teaching those first friends, the disciples. He continues to teach us today through his Word and by his Spirit. Jesus wants us to know him and his way. And, he wants us to be obedient to his teaching and his commands as a mark of being called his friend.
There is one more thing that comes when we experience the new life in Christ that he died and rose again for us to have. He said to his disciples, "I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit." We often think of bearing fruit as producing some kind of result. But another way to think of the fruits we bear is as the things we do, our acts, that serve as signs of who we are as followers of Jesus who are experiencing a new life. It's important to note that the power which produces the fruit is fellowship with Jesus. In other words, they show us to be followers of Jesus, his friends, who do as he did, speak as he spoke, and love as he loved.
Think about it ...
Is your joy full today (from v. 11)? If not, prayerfully consider how to experience full joy in Jesus.
How has Jesus shown his love for you in the last week?
How can you reflect friendship with Jesus onto others?
In what ways can you "bear fruit" in your life?
