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“You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call
you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I
have heard from my Father.” John 15:14–15
To some, Jesus’ definition of friendship may, at first glance, seem
odd. He says that we are His friends only when we do what He
commands us to do. Imagine saying that to one of your best friends.
Such a statement would most likely be met with a laugh and
dismissal as foolishness. So is true friendship always based on
obedience?
Obviously, the expectation that your friends obey you so as to win
your friendship is not the basis of any authentic friendship. Jesus
is the only one Who can base your friendship upon obedience to His
holy will. Why? Because of the nature of what He commands you to
do.
Jesus is pure Truth. What He wills is the perfection of love.
Therefore, His statement that you are only His friend if you do
what He commands you to do teaches that friendship is based on the
truth. It’s based on love, goodness, kindness, selfless sacrifice
and self-giving. And it is all of these truths that Jesus commands
us to do. Therefore, Jesus is essentially telling us that His will
alone provides the pathway to the friendship we desire to have with
Him.
In regard to your friendship with others, each true friendship can
only be based on that which God wills for friends. And, in that
sense, you can “command” the will of God for your friendships. This
means you are only willing to establish a friendship upon the
truth. It means you are only willing to share a relationship based
upon selfless, sacrificial, self-giving mercy, compassion, honesty
and love.
Reflect, today, upon your understanding of friendship. Begin with
your friendship with God, but then also ponder your friendship with
others. Do you love our Lord in the way that He commands? And as
you ponder your friendship with others, examine whether or not each
friendship also conforms to obedience to the will of God. If you
can love God and others in conformity with the dictates of true
love, then your friendships will produce an eternity of deep
fulfillment.
My divine Lord, You call me to a friendship with You based only
on the dictates of pure and holy love. I thank You for this command
of love and accept this invitation. Help me, Lord, to continually
deepen my friendship with You in accord with the truths of love and
help me to base all my friendships only on the commands of this
holy love. Jesus, I trust in You.
Image: Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia
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