I bet you have heard this saying before. “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
This statement might cause you to laugh, but the truth behind the statement is, the people a person calls a friend are not supposed to act like enemies. In other words, your friends are supposed to help you, assist you, walk with you in life. They know you, they know what is important to you, they know what you cherish, they know what you is your desire, they know what you need to accomplish your goals. They speak, they act, they serve in a way that helps you to become who they know you really want to be.
This morning we hear Jesus call his disciples friends, why because they know what the master desires. Jesus says that they know everything that he/Jesus has heard from his Father. Jesus reminds them that he has shared with his disciples everything that is in his heart and on his mind. Jesus has opened up his life to them in a way in which he has not kept anything hidden from them. And remember it is Jesus who calls his disciples friends not his disciples calling him their friend. Yes, it is true Jesus was their friend, but the most common title given to Jesus by the disciples was either Teacher (Rabbi) or Lord.
But Jesus calls them friends, because they have seen him, they know him, Jesus is entrusting to them what he has made know to them. Because they are his friends they have in mind or at least will come to the point where all they have in mind are the things of Jesus, not their own desires or goals, but what Jesus has entrusted to them to accomplish what he had purposed for them from the beginning.
This is so important, because the mistake that Christians often make, that we tend to make is considering Jesus to be our friend without first understanding him as Teacher and Lord. We try to make Jesus our friend without gaining his wisdom and authority over our lives. In others words, it like we are trying to get what we want out of Jesus without considering what is best for him and what will accomplish his purposes.
Jesus, says, “as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love”