Friendship with Jesus Christ, no better friend in the world; John 15:13-15.

Title: Friendship with Jesus Christ, no better friend in the world; John 15:13-15.

 

John 15:12"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

 

And now we see the extent of the power of this love.

 

John 15:13"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

 

 “life” yuch, [psuche] = soul. The real you is in the soul therefore laying down is not a reference to physical life, but your essence.

 

The essence of the soul:

Self-consciousness - self awareness

Mentality - the thinking part (left lobe and right lobe)

Volition - choices

Emotion - the responder of the soul

Conscience - norms and standards.

 

 “for” - u`per[huper] = the preposition of substitution - “on behalf of.”

 

 “friends” - fi,loj[philos] = those with whom you have a total soul love. This is mature love in fellowship, applying to the entire royal family, after agape love has been matured.

 

This is the tremendous power of this love and every believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity to possess it.

 

There is a different emphasis between the friends of the RF and your dearest friend or friends. Generally we have one, two, or three really close friends with whom we share a deep rapport. This is based on attraction, commonality of thinking, likes, and dislikes.

 

However the emphasis here is on a soul love where admiration and affection are directed towards our common relationship to Christ within His body, and not typical, exclusive friendship.

 

This is true fellowship with the royal family and it excludes certain very intimate relationships. This is made clear in another passage.

 

1 John 3:16

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren [adelphos].

 

This is adelphos without the philo dough. The lay down is for every believer in your path and not just those whom you’ve experienced commonality.

 

Every believer is in Christ, but no believer is best friends with every other believer.

 

 

 

Prov 18:24

A man of many friends comes to ruin,

But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

 

So while philos is rooted in personal love, its nuance in context of the RF is based on the knowledge of every other believer’s relationship to Christ.

 

Every believer possesses Christ’s righteousness, and that we are all placed in the body of Christ according to the Sovereign will of God. There is a certain attraction to these things from the positive believer.

 

Don’t forget how dangerous fellowship can be without agape love’s willingness to lay down one’s life.

 

In verse 14 we again have friendship or fellowship, but this is with TLJC and it is different than our friendship and fellowship with one another. The reason it is different is because Christ is not in the body. Christ is the head.

 

John 15:14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you.

 

In verse 14 there is a subtle, but very real change in the context of the message. Philos in the RF applies to the value in every believer in their possession of +R and union with Christ.

 

Philos with Christ is different since it depends on your PMABD.

 

Our relationship with one another is different than our relationship with Christ because Christ is the head of the body. We are under His authority forever.

 

We are commanded not to evaluate one another, yet Christ will evaluate each of us. We do not give commands to one another [exception is parents to children] yet Christ gives us His commands.

 

The qualifications for friendship between an authority and those under the authority depends entirely on the understanding and agreement of the policies and procedures of the authority.

 

This is true of parents to children as well, and serves as a perfect illustration of the difference between friends within the RF and friendship of any believer with Christ.

 

Two children can become best friends based upon rapport and both can reject the authority of their parents. They can also accept the authority of their parents and be chummy while simply not being mature enough to understand the policies and procedures of their parents.

 

Let’s say for example that both youngsters have chores and homework to do before they can hang out together. They both do so because they obey their parents and then they enjoy the time they have to hang out with each other. But they likely do not understand the reason for the chores and the homework. Their parents are instilling in them a work ethic and responsibility the importance of which for their future success is not understood. They just do it because they’ll get punished for not doing it. So they have every basis for being friends with each other but no basis for being friends with their parents.

 

Parents should not be friends with their children until the children are grown mentally to a point of understanding, and then there is commonality for friendship.

 

This is also true of our relationship to Christ. The analogy is perfect to a point. In the natural, the child eventually leaves the home and is no longer under the authority of their parents, whereas we are always under the authority of Christ.

 

The friend of Christ knows Him, shares His interests in common, and applies His word.

 

In fact, we see a title in the OT for the “friend of the king.” There are two instances in the OT of this office or position.

 

Both David and Solomon had a “friend of the king.” David’s friend Hushai was sent on a mission as a spy within the enemy’s court.

 

Within a list of cabinet officers to the king this curious title is given to one man.

 

1 Chron 27:33

Hushai the Archite was the king's friend.

 

1 Kings 4:5

Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's friend

 

Nothing is mentioned about Zabud, but much is mentioned about the great man Hushai whose successful mission and ability to think on the spot spared King David’s life. Isn’t it interesting that we’re given a commission to go out into the devil’s world in order to deliver the captives with God’s word?

 

There is also another title in the scripture for the cosmic believer.

 

James 4:4

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

 

Now we turn to the difference between a slave and a friend in reference to Christ. Even though Hushai was called a friend, he was forever a servant to David and never his equal, and so it is with believers and Christ.

 

The believer is always a slave, bond-slave, and servant of Christ, but when he grows to maturity he is called a friend while still under the status of a slave.

 

Abraham is the only person in the Scripture that is called a friend of God.

 

2 Chron 20:7

Didst Thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Thy friend forever?

 

ISA 41:8

"But you, Israel, My servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

Descendant of Abraham My friend,

 

James 2:23

and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God.

 

Abraham was also forever a servant or slave of God.

 

GEN 26:18

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said,

 

"I am the God of your father Abraham;

Do not fear, for I am with you.

I will bless you, and multiply your descendants,

For the sake of My servant Abraham."

 

This was said to Isaac after Abraham’s death and so it is a title that remains for Abraham even after he had gained friendship status.

 

Why was Abraham called a friend?

 

John 15:14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you.

 

What I command you - to love one another [lay down your soul on behalf of one another] as I have loved you [laid down my soul on behalf of you.]

 

What did Abraham lay down? He laid down the most precious thing in the world to him for the sake of Christ. This is Abraham’s finest moment and his mountain top experience. For a half decade he has prepared for this by learning doctrine. He had failed many times, but he never quit on God, and by this tenacity he experienced the mountain top with God. Too many children of God quit, due to failure in some way, before they can stand on this peak with the Lord Almighty.

 

Many believers get discouraged, they allow their failures to keep them down, they fail to use 1 John 1:9, they fail to get up and to move on when they fail, and in addition to that they are constantly looking back at their failures.

 

GEN 22:1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

 

GEN 22:2 And He said, "Take now [no time for debate or contemplation] your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

 

 “Moriah” means “manifestation of Jehovah” in Hebrew. It refers to the small mountains at Jerusalem [Salem], the highest of which is Calvary.

 

About 42 miles from where Abraham lived, a three day journey.

 

GEN 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

 

GEN 22:4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

 

GEN 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad [at least a teenager] will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you."

 

GEN 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

 

The son Isaac is carrying the wood up Calvary’s hill while his father holds the fire, representing judgment. This is occurring well before any temple or great city was built, almost 2000 years before Christ and here we are 2000 years after Christ being exhorted to lay down our souls as well.

 

GEN 22:7 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

 

GEN 22:8 And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

 

GEN 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there, and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

 

GEN 22:10 And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

 

GEN 22:11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" [saying his name twice is bestowing honor upon him] And he said, "Here I am."

 

GEN 22:12 And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

 

GEN 22:13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

 

GEN 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it will be provided."

 

 “The Lord Will Provide,” - Jehovah-jireh. This is Calvary! Jesus Christ is God the Father’s Providence.

 

GEN 22:15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

 

GEN 22:16 and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

 

GEN 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

 

GEN 22:18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

 

GEN 22:19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

 

What we commit to the Lord is never lost and much more is gained.