With Dale Ratzlaff
John 15:12-17
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.
We now know for sure what Christ’s commandment is. It is not just “love one another,” but “love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus loved them even when they completely misunderstood His love and wanted to call fire from heaven to come down and destroy those who spoke against Him, yet He loved them still.
…and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Lk. 9:52-56).
The disciples were filled with personal pride and were arguing who among them was the greatest even near the end of Christ’s ministry, yet He loved them still.
And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest (Lk. 22:24).
Peter took the reasoning of Satan when He tried to tell Christ what to do, yet He loved Peter still.
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Mt. 16:23).
We see in the Gospels how Jesus had compassion for the crowds. He healed their sick, freed the demon-possessed, and endured their many shortcomings and immature expressions of faith. Jesus goes on to describe the greatest love:
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Here the disciples are told to keep loving with the agape love demonstrated by Jesus. They are to have the same insight, intelligence, the same motive, and purpose. They are not just to be friends, but they are to be devoted to each other, helping each other amid failures, misunderstanding, and shortcomings. Jesus gives the definition of this “greater love.”
Some have suggested that there is yet a greater love than dying for friends—to die for one’s enemies. Jesus is not discussing love for enemies right now, as He is in the midst of His friends. Nevertheless, in other contexts, we see God’s love directed not only to His friends but to His enemies as well.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:10).
So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Mt. 5:45).
The high point of this love for both friends and enemies is demonstrated on the cross.
When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:33-34).
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
We must be very careful here that we do interpret this correctly. Some might, at first read, think that we can become a friend of God by keeping Christ’s commandment. Rather, as we will soon see, this God/human friendship is always initiated by the call of God.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you.
Few people in Scripture are said to be friends of God.
…and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God (Jam. 2:23).
Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend (Ex. 33:11).
We often think of friendship as the loving fellowship of two equals. However, this is not the case. Christ condescended to become our friend. We are lifted up to become Christ’s friend.
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
We think of slaves as working for an authoritarian despot, one who gives specific orders that are to be carried out without thought or questioning. Jesus separates the definition of slaves from friends by the point of understanding the purpose of what God is intending by the request, rather than by blind, mechanical obedience. He explains what He is doing so that they can fit better into the fulfillment of the divine project. On this note, we see that Abraham, called a friend of God, was included in God’s dealing with Sodom and Gomorrah. As a friend, Abraham had the right to dialog and even question God’s plans, and God accepted this fascinating kind of relationship.
The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. “I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the LORD. Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.” Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.” Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten” (Gen. 18:17-32).
We find a similar captivating encounter between Moses and God in Exodus 32:
The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’’’ So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people (Ex. 32:9-14).
I will not try to make this passage say more or less than it reads; I will leave that to others, only that it appears God wants to have meaningful dialogue with His “friends.”
From the Gospel accounts it appears that Christ honors meaningful dialog even from those who are not designated as “friends,” but “dogs.”
And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once (Mt. 15:22-28).
Just as God shared with Abraham what He was about to do, Christ was sharing with His “friends” what He was going to do which included all that the Father had shown Him. Later, we will learn that the complete fulfillment of the Father’s revelation did not take place until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Apostles.
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
In New Testament times, people looking for knowledge would search for a teacher. When they found one that they perceived had the wisdom they were wanting, they would join themselves to this teacher and become his “disciple” or follower. One of the sayings of Rabbi Joshus was, “Provide thyself with a teacher” (See Leon Morris, The Gospel of John, p. 676.) None of Christ’s disciples, however, joined themselves to Jesus in this way. Jesus personally chose them all.
Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him (Jn. 6:70-71).
Not only were the disciples personally chosen by Christ, but they were “appointed” by Him for a specific purpose. Here Jesus is sharing with them His plans for their future and how they could help in the divine project of saving the world. It is a progressive plan with one step fitting into the next.
First, they were to go. Later we will learn that they were to start in Jerusalem, then go to Samaria, and then to the rest of the world.
Next, they were to “bear fruit.” They are to go into all the world to make other disciples—followers of Jesus.
When they (and we) do this, there is the promise that the “fruit” will remain. This promise gives us the courage to keep sowing the seed, to keep proclaiming the gospel, to keep praying for others that the life of grace will lead them to victory in Christ.
All of the above points are to be bathed in prayer. As Jesus will soon be leaving His disciples, He now asked them to pray to the Father in His name. Earlier, He had stated,
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it (Jn. 14:14).
Whether we ask Christ or the Father makes little difference. What matters is that we ask in Christ’s name, meaning that our requests for doing God’s will all rest on the merits of Christ. These promises all come with assurance.
Whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it (Jn. 14:14).
Jesus ends this section the same way it started. There is to be no misunderstanding about Christ’s commandments.
This I command you, that you love one another.
Application
When we compare our love to the love demonstrated by Christ in His ministry, culminating at the cross, we fall awfully short. Just as we trust Christ for perfect obedience to the Father’s will, we can and should trust Christ’s perfect love credited to our account. Our prayer should always be, “Lord, help me to love others as you loved me. Teach me what it means to truly love, in my family, work and community.”
The fact that Jesus repeats the promise that if we ask anything of Him or of His Father in His name, He will do it, opens up vast opportunities for contemplation. The context of this “asking” is in doing God’s will, sharing the gospel, producing fruit—helping others find salvation in Christ alone. The experience of Abraham, Moses—the friends of God—and the Canaanite woman, noted above, give us reason to press our requests with greater force. When we consider the teaching Jesus gave in Matthew and Luke, it gives us additional reason for us not to give up on our prayer requests. The requests in the reference below are in the present, continuous tense as noted.
So I say to you, ask [keep asking], and it will be given to you; seek [keep seeking], and you will find; knock [keep knocking], and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened (Lk. 11:9-10).
We should not hesitate to accept the term “friend of God” if we are born again. Later in John, Jesus makes it clear that what He has said and promised to the twelve also applies to those who believe based upon their testimony:
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word (Jn. 17:20).
Therefore, as “friends of God” we can dialogue with God in prayer, continually pressing our requests which we understand are in the will of God. This mindset gives us continuing assurance as we intercede for others as Moses interceded for sinful Israel and Abraham interceded for those in Sodom. We hear many stories of people who had interceded for others for many years before their prayers were answered. Therefore, let us not lose heart as we pray. We have these promises.
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it (Jn. 14:14).
Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son (Jn. 14:13).
Prayer
Father in the name of Jesus, I thank you that I can be your friend, not based on my goodness or even likability, but only because Jesus declared that I am in the family of God. Thank you that I can pray with confidence in your will, knowing now that I have the requests that I have made, even if I cannot see them yet. Strengthen my faith and perseverance in prayer.
In Jesus name.
- Is Sunday Sacred? - April 25, 2024
- Jesus is the Firstborn - April 4, 2024
- What Is the Meaning of the Cross? - March 28, 2024