Friends

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] 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. 
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] 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. 

"As the Father has loved me, - Jesus - so have I loved you. Abide in my love." - Jesus

What is the nature of the Father's love for His Son? Is it not an infinite, unrelenting, boundless, and perfect love? Is it not eternal bliss, overflowing with joy? It is indeed! 

This is exactly the same love - indicated by "as...so" in the above verse - that the Son has for us.  Christ is telling - and promising - this same love (the Father's love for the Son) is his love for us. Do you believe!? Selah... ponder this for a moment. Read it over and over until it stirs and delights your heart... "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word" - i.e. promise - of God-Christ. Rom 10:17

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

In carrying out the will of another, we are aligning ourselves, our desires, and conduct with their wishes and desires. It is how we show our love, respect for, and delight in them. And when we do we more fully partake of - abide in - the love they have for us. This is what relationships are all about - the giving and receiving of love.

Our keeping the commandments of God the Son and Christ keeping the commandments of God the Father is how we both participate in the joy the Father has in the Son by the Spirit. This is a mutually shared interest we have with Christ - a key reason we are friends. We both desire to honor the Father we love, with our words and actions.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

And what is the joy of the Son? It is the mutual joy of friendship - union - with the Father. The Son delights in the Father and the Father delights in the Son. They share a mutual delight in each other (a mutually shared interest is the essence of friendship). And it is this very same joy that we are invited to enter into, partake of, and share. This common interest that we share with Christ makes us friends.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

As the Father has loved the Son and the Son has loved us so we are to love each other. The early verses spell out that love. This verse talks about how this love flows out from us to others. 

And how has the Father loved the Son and the Son loved us? Sacrificially. They both ¹gave up something they loved and valued greatly - a mutual, perfect, unobstructed union with each other - for the benefit of another i.e. us. They valued another's benefit and interests - ours - more than their own.  

The Father sent the Son - of his eternal union, infinite love, and unfettered communion - away from himself and down to earth to be with us. The Son left the Father of infinite love, became a man, took his body and the life it possessed, and laid it down for us so we might have the same love relationship with the Father of infinite love and delight. Christ wanted to share with us what he valued and delighted in most - the Father - and gave up something he valued, to do so i.e. his own life and unobscured fellowship with His Father, as the next verse confirms.

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.

The central component of friendship is mutually shared interests. Friends share the same values, interests, and desires. What is that mutual interest that we and Christ share? A desire to bring honor and pleasure to the Father by following His will, desire, and commandments.

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.

The father is not only the ²Sovereign head - the master/Lord - over all things, he is also our friend. The secret things that only the Son knows and hears from the Father are shared with us.

When someone lets you in on who they are, their most intimate personal joys, desires, and secrets they are opening up and sharing their heart with you. They are even making themselves vulnerable. This is what friends do and only what friends do. We do not share our secret dreams, joys, and desires with strangers. Nor does God.

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¹Ironically in so doing they experienced their own value and joy for each other more.

²To be friends with someone doesn't mean you are equals in skill or ability but in interests, values, and desires. You both have an interest in the same things. For us and Christ, that mutually shared value is love for the Father and a desire to honor Him. And how do we honor him?  How do we honor anyone we love? By doing what they ask us to do. We share this in common with Christ which makes us friends.

When God or Christ reveals something secret about themselves to us this is a gesture of friendship.

The key to friendship is mutual or common interests. In this sense the Father, Son and Spirit are friends and have been from all eternity past. We also are friends with God if we desire what he desires i.e. his honor and glory.  And when we do he reveals himself to us and shares himself with us.

Loneliness is not a characteristic of imperfection but of perfection. The Father and Son are not alone - and never were at any time - but they are friends and we are like him/them. We are not designed to be alone but to be in relationship just as the Father and Son are in a relationship of mutually shared interests. To participate in their friendship is to be like them; to be friends.