John 15:11-17 NLT
[11] I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! [12] This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. [13] There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command. [15] I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. [16] You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. [17] This is my command: Love each other.
Good Morning!
As a follower of Christ’s teaching, Jesus calls us His friend. Notice in verse 14, Jesus says, “you are my friends if you do what I command.” He is referring to verse 12 — “to love each other in the same way that I have loved you.”
It is not always easy to love all people as Jesus did. But it is our calling as a friend of God. We are to love people with the love of Jesus. We are to look at the people around us through the lens of God loving all of His people. All of us are created equal in God’s eyes and we are to treat others with the love and respect that Jesus showed us.
Jesus gave us the example of being humble and washing His disciple’s feet so that none of us get too puffed up for our own good. If we are to follow Jesus’ example, then we are to do as He did. We are to be servant leaders, serving those around us with God’s love and mercy. This is the beginning of producing lasting fruit (v16 above).
John 13:5 NLT
[5] and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
Luke 22:26 NLT
[26] But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.
Now some will choose to not be a friend of God, but to be a friend of the world. James tells us that when we make friends with the world, we make ourselves an enemy of God.
James 4:4 NLT
[4] You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
There is one cure for being a friend of the world, where God will lift us up in honor, as James continues in verse 7:
James 4:7-10 NLT
[7] So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. [9] Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
As John 15:11 above says, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” This is the benefit of being a friend of God – overflowing joy. And there are so many more benefits of being a Christ follower that I couldn’t name them all here or even in an entire book. But Psalm 103 gives us a few…
Psalm 103:2 NKJV
[2] Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.
Homework – Read the entire Psalm 103 here
Let us walk each day as a servant leader with the example that Christ gave us. Let us be a friend of God and not a friend of the world and let our joy overflow!
I love you and am praying fo you today!
Dad
Good song here on this subject 🙂