Daily Inspiration

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” —John 15:12-17

Christ Jesus is my God, my Savior, my King, my Master, and my Brother. That statement is true because Christ is above me by virtue of my station in life and my relative position to Jesus. I don’t have to choose those things for them to be true.

But to claim Jesus as Friend reveals an intimacy far beyond His other titles. Friends choose one another. Those other relationships listed, while true, are just part of God’s truth. Jesus is all those things, whether we choose to honor the title or not. He is God, King, Savior, and so on. But for Christ to call me His friend, and likewise for me to call Him mine, that is an intimacy by choice. Ponder the immensity that Our Lord has offered you His hand in friendship. Consider if you offer Him your hand in return.