WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?

"I longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15, NIV)

I've just about stopped adding to my list of "friends" on Facebook. While it might be nice to think that I'm friends with my bishop, a famous author, or even a kid in the youth group, I've begun to have second thoughts whenever I'm asked to add another "friend" to my list.

To me a friend is one with whom I can share my innermost hopes and dreams, as well as my trials and defeats. A friend is one who, whether I write to express a new thought or an old emotion, will write back to show his/her understanding. Few of my Facebook "friends" will do any such thing. Come to think of it, few people I know will do that at all. I written before that Facebook friends seemed to be consumed with what they themselves are doing. That's not always the case, but it often seems to be. Even some non-Facebook people who say they are my friends grow weary after a while of responding.

The old hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" says that Jesus is our friend, because we can take all of our griefs and cares to him in prayer. On the other hand, Jesus himself told his disciples that he considered them his friends because he had already told them everything he had learned from his Father.

Let me rephrase that. I tend to consider someone a friend if I can tell him/her what's on my mind and get a response. Jesus called his disciples friends, because he had told them everything that was on his Father's mind. What kind of response did he expect? Just one verse prior to the one above he tells them: "You are my friends if you do what I command" (vs. 14).

And what is that? "Love each other as I have loved you" (vs. 12). It is love that on the Father's mind constantly. It is his Father's love that Jesus tried to teach and demonstrate in his interactions with his own followers and friends. In turn, it is that love that he expected, even commanded, those who followed him to share with others.

Many people, myself included, tend to think of friends as people who will demonstrate a friendly sort of love to them. In that way we try to make them our servants. Jesus, on the other hand, expects his friends to demonstrate love for one another, to, in effect, be each other's servants.

Now, as I go down my list of Facebook friends (and other friends, as well), a new thought will occupy my mind: "How can I show them God's love?" When I'm through doing that for the "friends" I already have listed, I just may have add some new ones. That is how God's love spreads.

Blessings,
John