Contents

Introduction

Who is a friend? Oxford Languages defines the word so:

“A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.”

This is a good definition for our purposes. Please note the key words “knowing,” “bond,” and “mutual affection.” God knows who His friends are—those who know Him and with whom He has a bond of mutual affection. We would like to develop this study around those key words with the goal of understanding Jesus’ intended meaning of the word “friends” in John 15:15.

Knowing: The Revelation of God

Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. To know Jesus is to know God (“Show Us the Father”). And Jesus is found on the pages of Scripture, the Christian Bible; in the Old Testament He is prophesied of, in the New Testament that prophecy is fulfilled by way of His incarnation and His ministry. It is straightforward on the one hand therefore to get to know Jesus, and hence God, simply by studying the gospels which attest to His ministry, and by studying the various epistles which expound that ministry, but on the other hand divine guidance is required to grasp the various texts aright, which comes by way of the Holy Spirit (Jesus speaking: John 14:26).

In John 15:15 Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and these are followers of Jesus who have tethered themselves to Him relationally (the hallmark of a disciple and a friend), and they are learners, learning the truths that Jesus is teaching them, that came from Father God (“He Who Sent Me”), and it is upon their hearing specifically those truths that Jesus pronounces them His friends and in the same breath distinguishes them from servants, which they, as all followers of Jesus are by default. (Followers of Jesus are by default His servants.) Those truths are precisely the revelation of God. So please notice: From His perspective, for starters, a friend of Jesus is someone to whom He reveals God–since His Ascension this comes by way of Scripture, His servants, and foremost by way of His Spirit as mentioned. So, the revelation of God by God Himself begins the divine friendship with us He seeks—that is His role in it. But then must needs come a follow on which is our role in the divine friendship God seeks to have with us, as discussed just next.

Bonding

Bonds bespeak attraction, and attraction is predicated on knowing. It is one thing to learn about God and to have some knowledge about Him per the revelation and knowing spoken of in the previous section, it is quite another to find what one discovers about Him to be attractive. This lends itself to Jehovah’s motivation with humankind: it is relational, a two-way street comprised of mutual affection. And right here is where the enemy strikes hard, blinding the eyes of the beholder with exaggerated mundane valuations that presume to take the attractive shine off Jesus and His teachings (2Corinthians 4:4). So, the divine friendship with God assumes revelation and knowing as said, but then must follow attraction to God based on what was learned about Him. There can be little doubt that the “friends” Jesus has in mind in John 15:15 were attracted to God based on both what they heard about God from Jesus, and the very words of God that Jesus delivered to them.

The Precedent of Abraham and Moses—No Less a Friend of God is the Believer

Abraham heard from God (Genesis 12:1ff, Genesis 15:1ff, Gen 18:1ff), by-and-by he came to know Him and became attracted to Him; in turn he trusted and had faith in Him, alike borne out by his obedience to God under exceeding duress (Genesis 22:1ff). In this way Abraham exercised his role in the divine friendship that God sought with him and became His friend (2Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8; in general, cf. Exodus 19:5, and by contrast John 8:38-40—by contrast, this verse set bespeaks a marked disdain for the revelation of God, the knowing that Jesus brought—it follows that hardly were these serpents here addressed by Jesus His friends; they bought into the lie—exaggerated mundane valuations as mentioned—that Satan blinded them with).

Moses, like Abraham, was far from perfect, yet God declared him to be His friend too. Indeed, it hardly matters the state of one’s perfection down here in the land of the living, friendship with God is based on His grace (Exodus 33:11, Romans 9:13-18), and of course today that grace, that divine friendship, is found in a personal relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ available for the asking for anyone. Do you wish to be Jesus’ and hence God’s friend dearest reader “A Letter of Invitation”?

Concluding Comments

Let us summarize the above sections and then draw some conclusions with God’s help and guidance. Our goal in this study was to get an understanding of Jesus’ intended meaning when He used the word “friends” in John 15:15. The study unfolded around a simple mundane definition of the word friend:

“A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.”

the first step in any friendship involves knowing the other person, and in the context of friendship with God we talked about knowing God, and clearly, knowing God is the work of God from first to last. God reveals Himself; this is the only way one can attain accurate knowledge of who God is given the exceedingly far-reaching attributes of deity. In the case of Abraham and Moses this was manifest revelation—in some form God actually appeared to these men, and they came to know Him via His manifest presence and were accordingly attracted to Him in a tight bond of (mutual) affection. Upon the first advent of Jesus Christ, a much clearer understanding of who God is was established, because to know Jesus is to know God, and Jesus is found throughout the pages of Scripture, from the Old Testament (prophetically) to the New Testament (manifest fulfillment of that prophecy via His person, His ministry, His death, burial and resurrection, His ascension). Particularly the New Testament, the gospels, and the epistles, which attest to the life and ministry of Jesus, elucidate who He and hence God is.

Of course, there is more to a friendship than knowing the other person, one must be attracted to that person (non-sexual, non-familial, following the definition). To be Jesus’ friend, one must be attracted to Him, establishing a bond of mutual affection, which rightly assumes that God’s affection is ever in place, long before one becomes aware of it by His loving grace no less. Simply put, one must like God as revealed by Jesus, and enjoy Him, and like what He stands for. One must find His teachings, His revelations, His commands, His standards, and so forth, attractive. One must want to be identified with the same. Friends hold each other in high esteem like that, and it is no different when it comes to friendship with God.

We conclude that the friends Jesus had in view in John 15:15 were foremost the ones that received and internalized and embraced His revelation of Father God, and thus precisely Jesus, and were attracted to the same, in this way identifying with Jesus and His Revelation and thus by default reciprocating His bond of affection toward them as best as humanly possible on an individual basis, in the end therefore establishing a bond of mutual affection between God and said friend.

Praised be your Name great Jehovah God, even dearest Friend. Amen.