Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

(Joh 15:13-15)

 

The idea of humans being friends with the great creator God is clearly expressed in both the Old and New Testaments. In Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7 Abraham is called the friend of God, and James 2:23 quotes these verses in the New Testament. Moses was also called God’s Friend. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11).

 

We therefore see that when Christ calls his disciples friends that, although it may have been a surprise to his disciples, it was not something new. God has not changed; he has always wanted to have friends within mankind.

 

Friends are those people whom we love and want to spend a lot of time with. How audacious would it be to expect that the great and powerful all knowing God would want to be our friend? Yet in John 15:9-19 we are told that Christ wants to be friends with us. In these verses he talks a lot about his love for the disciples and also tells them that they are his friends. He then says No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Love and friendship are interwoven and cannot be separated.

 

But how do we show love toward the one who laid down his life for us? What exactly does God expect of his friends? How can we possibly be able to be friends of God? He is so powerful and so loving, what could we do that would make him love us? He does not keep us in suspense but tells us plainly in these same verses: You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. And If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

 

But what are his commandments? Are they difficult to do? Are they hard to understand? Does the powerful all knowing God only want great and powerful people with incredible intellect to be his friends? God again in simple words tells us what the requirements of a friend of God are: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

 

While Christ is commanding us to obey him he is not commanding us as if we were slaves, for he tells us clearly: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. He has taken those who were his slaves and is elevating them to the level of friendship by revealing to them everything that he knows. But why would he do this? Why does he not just want slaves to obey him? Why does he want us to be his friends?

 

As we come to know our friends we learn about them and share their characteristics, and this is what God ultimately wants for us. The reason for being a friend of God is to develop in us the very mind of Christ. For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). Similarly: For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)

 

Our friendship with God is to ultimately lead us to become at one with God. Christ prayed: And now I will be no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we are one. And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. (John 17:21)

 

Many people’s relationship with God is based on fear of what God may do to them if they don’t obey Him. Or on getting some reward if we do obey him. Yet the reason God wants us to obey him is so that we can be friends with him. Obedience to God should not be motivated out of fear or rewards but should be seen as the open door to a meaningful relationship with him. Once we are his friends then God will want to live with us forever, and he has the power to give us eternal life so that we can do just that!

 

Yet we don’t become friends with God to get eternal life, we do so because we love him, and he then gives us the gift of eternal life because he wants to live with us forever. What greater gift could any friend give you!? What greater friend could you have? Yet what price do we have to be willing to give for this friendship? What do we need to do to demonstrate our friendship?

 

What Do Friends With God Do?

How therefore should this friendship with God be expressed in our life today? If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21). And similarly: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. (John 13:35).

 

The purpose of Christ being the friend with the first disciples was so that they would be an example of how to be friends to other people in the same way. Our friendships then become a witness to the entire world as it explains how God wants to relate to mankind. We therefore show love to others as a way of showing our love toward God and of witnessing to the world the Message of God, which is that he wants us to be his friends, and in the process of becoming his friends we are to develop the very mind of God in us. 

 

We therefore do not aim to have a relationship with God as between a servant and master, although God certainly could demand such a relationship, but he wants us to aim for the higher relationship of friendship. The reason we want to be friends with God is because we love God and we love his Way of Life that he is teaching us through his word. God’s Way of Life is explained in the Bible, which is the written Word of God. The Bible also reveals that Christ is the Living Word of God (1 Peter 1:23) who, through the Holy Spirit, guides us into knowing the Way the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

 

Christians listen to the prompting of the living Word of God as he guides us in understanding what the Bible means for us today. Yet even with this guide from Christ himself we will never know everything we want to know (1 Cor 13:12). We must be willing to live by those things we do understand, while also remaining humble so we can learn new knowledge as we grow and change, both individually and as a group.

 

From the above we can see that the work of our little group which we have called Friends With God (FWG) is to find other people who are also willing to be friends with God. We then work with these new people as friends so as to help them to reflect the love of God in their life. The members of FWG by our mutual example help each other develop our love and friendship with God.

 

What FWG do is to work together to provide any assistance possible, be it physical or spiritual, to those people who want to be friends with the Creator. We must also be willing to follow Christ’s example when he said: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13). Yet that may not mean dying, it may simply mean spending your time with the sick, or lonely, or those in prison or giving to the poor as explained in Matthew 25: 31-46.

 

Once we have demonstrated our friendship with others then God will want to live with us forever. We therefore, by helping others become friends with God, and at the same time can help them to partake of this gift of eternal life also!

 

FWG therefore aims to help people to develop and maintain a relationship with God based on friendship rather than fear. Unlike our other friends we cannot see God, but we can express our love toward God by how we love our neighbour.

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us plainly who is our neighbour and what we should do for them.

 

While we may never need to literally die for our friends we can, however, give our life for them by spending our time with them, and that's not actually such a burden if we genuinely like them!

 

God is not asking too much from us, just to be friends with each other and with Him. He then holds out the reward of eternal life as a motivation to endure the difficulties that we will encounter, just as he also encountered difficulties when He was human.

 

If you would like to contact us, Martin and Angela Storey, directly send an email to mvstorey@hotmail.com, and we would also like to meet with you sometime, we live on the Sunshine Coast, Australia.