“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” - John 15:14-15

The word friend in John 15 comes from phileo, which has its origin in love. Friendship is in our nature. It is in our fabric and composition. God from the beginning placed in us the desire to want a friend. We may not always think we need one, or even look at friendship as a need, but there is an advantage to having someone there for the journey that cannot be found in isolation.

Which makes what Jesus says in verse 14 interesting: “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” At first, that doesn’t sound like friendship. It sounds more like the relationship between a servant and a master. But in the very next verse Jesus makes a distinction between the two by saying that the servant does not know what his master is doing, while everything He heard from His Father He has made known to His friends.

The distinction is important.

A servant is for an assignment, but a friend is for a journey. A servant can be given something to do without knowing everything the master is doing because his responsibility is the assignment. A friend is different because the friend is going somewhere with you. And the journey can’t be completed in isolation or seclusion because the movement towards what is good, holy and righteous absolutely requires a friend.

A friend can connect you. A friend will place you in a room or situation you don’t deserve to be in. They will expose you to something you could not see on your own, take you somewhere you could not get on your own, or give you access to something you could not reach on your own. This is why friendship has an advantage.

And this is why we need a friend in Jesus. The journey we are on is towards God, towards what is good, holy and righteous, but we are too dirty and unholy to stand before a God who is perfectly pure on our own. We need a Friend who can put us in a room we don’t deserve to be in. Jesus gives us access to the Father that we could never have by ourselves.

But if you are going to go on an eternal journey with someone, there has to be stability, and one thing friendship requires is the stability of trust because trust is based on truth. The problem is that our sinful nature has no truth, and because it has no truth it can’t be trusted. And if it can’t be trusted, then our commandments are no good if friendship is what we are pursuing.

So when Jesus says, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you,” this is not simply about control or submission. Jesus is saying you have to keep My commandments because yours aren’t reliable; at some point we are going to become enemies if we keep human commandments. It isn’t, “Do it My way because I said so.” It is literally the only way. There isn’t another option.

Men of God, a servant can complete an assignment without ever knowing where the master is going, but a friend is there for the journey. Jesus doesn’t just want to give us assignments; He wants to make known to us what He is doing so that we can go with Him. And if that journey is towards what is good, holy and righteous, then obedience is what makes that friendship possible because His truth gives us the trust and stability necessary to remain with Him for the entire eternal, everlasting journey.

ᴳᵒ.ᴬʰᵉᵃᵈ
Bro. Carlos Miller