by Pastor Daniel

Introduction
“Friends are important”, and we all agree on that.  There is this familiar and famous saying, “A friend in need is a friend in deed.”    Another quotation I found in the internet says, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
 
Some of us have had even the experience that a real friend is closer than a brother.  I believe that this is so very true that from my personal experience many close friends that I know come through for me much closer than my brother.
 
With that thought about our relationship with God, I want to think of God in that fashion too.  It is not a wishful thinking, but a promise of God that He will be our friends.
 
Jesus in John 15:15 said, “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 Name of Honor versus the place of knowing
In the Bible, being a servant of God was no shame, it was a position of status and high honor.  Moses, Joshua and David were all called servants or slaves of God. 
 
The apostle Paul even identified himself as a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he too considered to be an honor. Romans 1:1- Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
It is not a shame to be called the servant of God.  Even today, many pastors or missionaries call themselves servants of God.  It has in a sense been elevated to a place of honor and not shame.
 
However, Jesus elevated his disciples even further when he said, “No longer do I call you slaves but I call you friends.”  What is the difference between a servant of God and a friend of God?  If you were to look into its implications, you will come to realize that a servant has only a one-way knowledge.  God knows him and owns him.  He simply serves and obeys.
 
While there is nothing wrong with this, our relationship with God is more than that. Being a friend is a two-way relationship.  Friends confide, share, bear one another’s burdens.  Today learning from the younger generation, they have developed a term called, “BFF”, meaning best friends forever.
 
Were there friends of God in the Old Testament?
 
Abraham, a friend of God
Abraham – The Father of the “Faith” is called a “friend” of God.
 
Being a friend of God implies faith in God and intimacy with God that is available even today through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is the experience of really knowing and being known by another person. The heart of our intimacy with God comes through “faith” and “trust” in Him and His Word.
 
As God calls Moses, and Abraham His “friend”, so does Jesus call His disciples “friend”.
 
This is where the goodnews lie - we are friends of Jesus Christ.  Immediately it fosters a responsibility on both party.  God shares his heart with us and we share our hearts with Him.
 
We see that displayed in the life of Abraham when God told him his plan to destroy Sodom and Gemorrah.  God did not need to do that but being a friend, He did.  Then the next thing we see happening was Abraham “bargaining” with God in trying to stop the judgment of God.  Abraham literally went into a bargain with God.  To think of that happening in the Old Testament is really foreign.  Nonetheless Abraham did.  What caused him to do that?  Was he showing disrespect?  Was he being frivolous with God?  Or was it because Abraham is more than just a servant of the Lord and has become the friend of God?
 
What a special relationship Abraham had.  It goes the same with Moses too and King David and others.
 
Conclusion
Today, Jesus is calling us His friends.  Let us enter into this friendship with God.  It gives us the responsibility of knowing our God in a more intimate manner, rather than a static one which involves only a one-way knowledge.  God has opened a path for us in this wonderful relationship and He can be your BFF.  God bless