What do you do or say when some of your best friends are moving far away? If you have millions in the bank and have no friends, you are a very poor person. Friends make life rich. If you are mentally ill you can talk to your bank account and if you are seriously mentally ill you will hear it talk back. But if you are a balanced rational being all you can get from your bank account is silence. It can’t laugh at your jokes nor tell you it loves you as you exit the bank. Friends can.
John 15:14-15 is one of the most encouraging statements Jesus ever made to His disciples. He called them His friends. Peter tells us in the Book of Acts that Jesus doesn’t play favorites. That means we also are included in that group of friends. In verse 14 He tells us we need to do what He commanded. And what did He command? Just two verses before this in verse 12, Jesus commands us to love one another. It is the sum and substance of His law. The first four commands are about our relationship to God and the last six about our relationship with each other. In Matthew 25 Jesus tells us if we have done it unto the least of them we have done it onto Him. If logic prevails, which it does, then we are down to one commandment; love each other.
This isn’t complicated. It is the simple heart of Christianity. Jesus created us to share our lives with others. He is one of the others. He wants to be our very best friend. That happens when we love each other as He loved and loves and will keep on loving us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 26, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org