We are His Friends If..

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12-17 ESV)

Jesus Christ commands (orders) that we who believe in him love one another as he loved and loves us. And this love is not human love, based in our emotions, for this love comes from God who is love, and Jesus is and was God (God incarnate) when he lived on the earth – fully God and yet fully human. This love (agape) means to prefer what God prefers. For the believer in Christ it means to prefer to live through Christ, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power. It means to prefer what God prefers.

And what God prefers is all that is righteous, godly, holy, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands. And that is why his gospel message to us teaches us that we must die with him to sin, not just once, but daily, and that we must follow him in obedience to his commands in holy living, and that we must no longer walk in sin. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, his word teaches that we do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to (save) our old lives of living in sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin (lose our lives), and walk in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But if we deny Jesus by how we live our lives, in rebellion to his commands, then when he returns one day, he will deny us (Luke 9:23-26).

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

So, if we are, indeed, loving one another as Christ loved and loves us, then we will not sin against one another willfully, deliberately, habitually, and premeditatedly. We will not willfully do what is evil to one another but we will do for one another what is for our mutual good, but good in the eyes of God. And we will sacrifice our own time and reputations and energies in serving our Lord and in ministering to one another as Jesus ministered to us. And we will encourage and instruct one another in the ways of the Lord.

Now when Jesus told his disciples that they were his friends if they did what he commanded them, and that he no longer called them his servants, he was not teaching that we don’t have to serve the Lord with our lives. We do! The Bible says we do. And if we really love the Lord, we will want to serve and obey him. We will want to minister to the body of Christ and to the people of the world in all the ways that the Scriptures teach that we ought to do, and because we love our Lord and we love the people of the world.

What he was telling them, I believe, is that obedience to him would bring them into a closer and more intimate relationship with him. It is kind of like a marriage relationship. If we remain faithful to our spouses and in loving them as we ought, and in ministering to them as we ought, and if both spouses are loving each other in the same way, then it brings them closer together in a more intimate relationship. But if one spouse chooses to be unfaithful, then it breaks that union and that fellowship.

And then he said that we did not choose him but he chose us. True! The Bible teaches that not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ and into union with him unless God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e. unless he first persuades us (the meaning of faith) to repent of our sins and to now follow him in obedience to his commands in holy living. And the faith to believe in Jesus is not of our own doing, but it is gifted to us by God, and therefore it will align with God’s will and purposes for our lives.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18]

Therefore, since the faith in Jesus Christ is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man – but it is gifted to us by God, and persuaded of God, then we don’t get to define what that faith looks like. For God’s word teaches faith as death to sin and living to God and to his righteousness. By faith we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him no longer as slaves to sin. So faith = obedience to God, for if we don’t obey him, we do not believe in him.

And our Lord did not give his life up for us just to forgive us our sins so that when we die we get to go to heaven and not hell. He died that we might die to sin and live to his righteousness, and that we might bear fruit in keeping with repentance which gives evidence that our faith in him is genuine faith. And this fruit will show itself in change of heart, mind, will, and character, and change of behavior and attitude and thinking and action. Now we live for God to please him and no longer to please our sinful flesh.

To Be Like Him  

An Original Work / March 16, 2014  

Based off Scripture

Crucified you are with Jesus.

To be like Him, oh, you’ll be,

Because He died at Calv’ry,

So from sin you’d be free.

Oh, what joy He brings into your life,

Giving life with Him endlessly. 

Oh, what plans He has for your life.

Share the gospel faithfully.

Show the people He loves them.

Now His witness you’ll be.

Tell the world of sin about Jesus,

How He died for them on a tree.

Purifying hearts, He saves them,

Who believe on Christ, God’s Son.

Turning now from their idols,

New lives they have begun.

Jesus saves from sin; we’re forgiven.

Over sin, the vict’ry He won!

When He comes again to take us

To be with Him evermore,

There will be no more crying.

Gladness will be in store.

Heavens joys will now overtake us:

We’ll be with our Lord evermore.

https://vimeo.com/89237609