Doulos to Philos

This message wraps up the series looking at names in the Bible. We have been examining some examples from scripture in which God changes somebody’s name. And we have been noting that these examples are important because names in the Bible have meaning. When God comes along and changes somebody’s name, what is really happening is that God is giving that person a new identity, a new sense of character, and new reputation by which they will be remembered.

In every single one of these messages we have considered how these name changes teach us and show us something about God that still holds true for us today. But we have not, up to this point, talked much yet about our own names. I am not talking about the actual birth name you have that has been given by parents. Rather, I want to conclude this series on names today by thinking about the kind of name that you and I are given in the Bible. In today’s passage we see just that, a name that we are given by God. Yet, once again, we see it is also an example of a name that has been changed, that God has taken a name we used to have and instead given us a new name in its place.

John 15:9–17 NIV

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no 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. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Servants

I no longer call you servants

I no longer call you servants; instead I have called you friends. Let’s deal a little bit with these two names, these two labels that Jesus chooses to call out the way our identity in Christ has moved to a new name. Perhaps we can infer some things from the way Jesus gives this teaching to his disciples. By saying that we are no longer called servants, there should be a reminder that we once held that name. There was a time in which the people of God were named and identified as servants of God. And as if we did not need this to be any more confusing, even the apostle Paul in the New Testament still identifies himself as a slave to the gospel and a servant of Christ; not just in passing, but over and over again in his letters Paul identifies himself as a servant of Christ and tells the church that we are all servants of Christ.

yet the apostle Paul in the New Testament still identifies himself as a servant of Christ

Alright then, how do we put this together? How can Paul say over and over again that we are servants of Christ when Jesus himself has told us—as we see in John 15—that he no longer calls us servants? Maybe the best way to make sense of this apparent contradiction is to dig into what Jesus means by the name servant.

doulos = servant/slave — identified the nature of relationship between master and worker | performance, production, utility

Servant comes from the Greek word doulos. It can refer to either a servant or a slave. It is a name that defines something of a relationship. If there is a servant, then there must also be a master. I know, so far this explanation does not seem to be helping, because—of course—we would identify God as our master. So, how is it then that Jesus get rid of the servant name from his followers? Let’s keep working at it.

modern equivalent: employee and supervisor

The names of servant and master define a relationship. It is a relationship that is based upon performance and production. We no longer use terms like servant and master to define everyday common relationships in our society the same way those names immediately applied to the society of Jesus’ day. Perhaps it would be helpful to bridge the language into something more common for our own time. Instead of servant and master, think of it more like employee and supervisor. That’s closer to our modern equivalent of understanding how the relationship between servants and masters worked in way Jesus is phrasing the names in this passage. Now we have some relatable features to describe.

contract, job description, tasks, defined expectation of performance/production

A person carries the name—or label—of an employee based upon a defined set of conditions. An employee is a person who has been given a specific job to do. In fact, it is the job and the work itself which defines what it means to have employment. There are contracts; there are job descriptions; there are expectations. Employees are evaluated based upon the performance of those jobs. And sometimes employment status can only be maintained by doing the job right and doing it well. The thing that makes a person an employee is the understanding of the relationship—I do this certain job, and I receive payment and compensation for doing so.

Alright then, maybe this is not terribly helpful yet. Because, I thought that as Christians we have been given something of a job to do. We have a mission given to us as a church. In fact, even the passage we see here from John 15 talks about the assignment of a specific task to be carried out; to love one another as God loves us. So far, I am not making a very strong argument here for why it is Jesus says we are no longer called servants. So far, it seems like everything I am saying seems to be pointing in the opposite direction; that we still ought to be named as servants of Christ. Let’s keep digging.

More than a Servant

servant does not know the master’s business; but Jesus grants us direct access to the Father

when you are a servant, then your place is to stay in your place, and that place is apart and separate from the place of the master

Jesus says this in John 15, a servant does not know his master’s business. In other words, the factory floor assembly line worker does not get access into the executive boardroom. Those who are private-first-class have no invitation to officer’s club. Those who fly coach have no business wandering up to the forward cabin beyond the curtain. Do you see? When you are a servant, then your place is to stay in your place, and that place is apart and separate from the place of the master.

“remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.” - if we are servants, this sounds like a contract

Now we’re getting somewhere. Now we start to see what Jesus is after by no longer calling those who follow him as servants. Look again at how Jesus begins this passage. The job, the command, the task that Jesus gives is this: “remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.” Why is Jesus telling us this? Why is he giving this command? If you and I were still called servants, then Jesus would be telling us this command because it serves as a condition of our employment. Keeping God’s commands in order to remain in his love would be our contract; it would be our job description. Keeping God’s commands would be the thing that defines our relationship with God as the master and us as servants.

Jesus says, I am telling you this “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

remaining in the love of God is about joy

But Jesus says, you are no longer called servants. Why, then, is Jesus telling us to keep his commands that we may remain in his love? Why is he telling us this? Verse 11 answers this question for us. Jesus says, I am telling you this “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Joy! Remaining in the love of God is not about fulfilling a contract. Remaining in the love of God is about joy. Remaining in the love of God is not about performing the tasks of a job description. Remaining in the love of God is about joy.

Friends

philos = friend, relationship based upon mutual affection and commitment to common good of one another

Now then, if this is the case; if the reason and motivation behind everything Jesus is teaching here is about the joy of the LORD being made complete in us, then truly you and I cannot be named by God merely as servants. And so, Jesus says, you are friends. The Greek word for friend is philos. This is the name we have now been given through Christ because this is now the identity though which God sees us.

not defined by contracts, job descriptions, performance reviews — defined by love

Friendship is a relationship which does away with contracts and job descriptions and performance reviews. The acceptance and affection of a friendship does not hang in the balance upon meeting a set of tasks. Rather, friendship is a relationship defined by love. A friend is a friend because there is a bond of love in the relationship. And isn’t this exactly what Jesus is saying in this passage from John 15? Love is the reason why God no longer names you as a servant. Love is the reason why Jesus calls you a friend. In fact, Jesus names the highest form of love between friends, to lay down one’s life for the other.

your relationship with God is not about your performance of a contract; it is about God’s persistence of love.

It is not a job description. It is not a contract. It is not an obligation. It is an offering of love which is freely given. Jesus offers his life for others because he loves us. And that is the reason why Jesus does not name you as a servant, but rather names you as a friend. It is not about your performance of a contract. It is about God’s persistence of love.

The Command to Love One Another

Let’s circle back, because we’ve left a question unanswered. Since we are no longer named servants, and since we are now named friends, then why does Paul so often in his letters refer to himself and those in the church as servants of Christ? How do we put those writings of Paul together with these words from Jesus today?

Paul’s servitude towards Christ is not a condition of the relationship, but a response to the relationship

The answer is that, for Paul, his servitude towards Christ is not a condition of the relationship, but a response to the relationship. Service to Christ is not a condition, it is a response. It is not, then, that Paul is contradicting the words of Jesus whenever Paul refers to himself as a servant of Christ. Rather, it is that Paul is offering a response to Christ; a response that perfectly embodies exactly what Jesus says about his joy being made complete in the friends he loves so very much.

as a servant, the command of Jesus to love each other would leave us guilty

Maybe this is helpful. In our faith tradition we summarize the teachings of the Bible into a document we call the Heidelberg catechism. The catechism is divided into three sections: guilt, grace, and gratitude. It teaches what scripture says about our guilt because of sin. It teaches what scripture says about the grace of God which brings us salvation through Christ alone. And it teaches what scripture says about the way we live in gratitude to God for the mercy and forgiveness he has poured out upon us. Now then, the passage we are looking at from John 15 ends with this statement from Jesus, “This is my command: Love each other.” If Jesus were to still name us as his servants, which part of the catechism would this command of Jesus fall into? It would be the first part. If you and I were to still carry the name of servant before God, then the command of Jesus in this passage to love each other would fit into the first part of our catechism; guilt. Because if God were to still look upon us as his servants, then this command would certainly leave each one of us guilty. We certainly have not even come close to living up to the command of God to love others. If our relationship with God were to still be defined by job descriptions and contractual obligations, then scripture and our catechism declares each one of us guilty.

Listen to how that exact thing happened way back in the Old Testament long before the time of Jesus coming to offer himself for our sins. This passage comes from the Old Testament book of Joshua.

Joshua 24:14–22 NIV

14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” 19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” 21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

if we still carried the name of servant before God, then it only leaves us apart from God with the weight of our guilt against us

Do you see it? If we still carried the name of servant before God, then it only leaves us apart from God with the weight of our guilt against us. But Jesus has taken that name away. Jesus no longer calls you by the name servant; now he calls you by the name friend. And this name changes everything. Now then, since we are friends of God chosen in him by his love, this command of Jesus to love one another takes on a whole new meaning and falls into a whole new place.

we love others, not because it is a contractual obligation of a servant-master relationship, but because it is an offering of thanksgiving given in love for the one who has offered himself in love for our salvation

Remember those three parts to the catechism: guilt, grace, and gratitude. As those who have been named as friends of Jesus, the command to love one another becomes an expression of gratitude. We love others, not because it is a contractual obligation of a servant-master relationship, but because it is an offering of thanksgiving given in love for the one who has offered himself in love for our salvation. It is because God has named you as his friend. Or to say it more plainly in the words of 1 John 4,

1 John 4:19 NIV

19 We love because he first loved us.