In the Beginning: The Book of John

(John 15:9-17[HCSB])

9 “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. 10 If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

11 “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

12 This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

17 This is what I command you: Love one another.

Not slaves, but friends

Matthew 22:37-40 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two Commands.” (See Deuterononmy 6:5)

Jesus goes further in this proclamation of love by declaring that we are no longer slaves, but friends of the Master because of His incredible love. We have been freed because we have been given Jesus who shows us what God is doing (vs. 15).

We are told that a true slave has no idea what the master is up to, and is never taken into the master’s confidence. Yet, as believers, we know that Jesus is what God does!

To make Himself even more difficult to resist, Jesus tells His followers that they [we] did not choose Him, but that like Peter, John and the other “fishers of men,” He chose us. While this may smack of Calvinism at a glance, I believe that what Jesus is trying to convey is this:

He chose us all that we might be made worthy if we are indeed willing to believe. Jesus chose to die for everyone; it’s true. But only those who accept the gift of the cross can be truly “redeemed,” and are willing to make the right choice. This is free will; it is accomplished by the Spirit., but the choice is ours

I believe the evidence for this grace is not in any doctrine, but in a walk that remains directed over time by, for, and in, the truth of who Jesus is. Jesus is God! Anything less is false doctrine. This is where sheep and goats are separated into their respective herds.

And what defines a believer? Loving one another, says Jesus. But first there is a love of God and of self. Every outcome that is good depends upon this! In this we are free to emulate the Master who we know as friend.