Love One Another (4)

Slaves and Friends

John 15:15 NASB95

“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Jesus tells his disciples that He no longer calls them slaves but friends. What Jesus is telling them is that their relationship to Jesus is changing. They will move from a hierarchical relationship to one of a personal nature. This does not mean that we are not still his slaves. We are Christ slaves. 1 Corinthians 6:20

1 Corinthians 6:20 NASB95

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

The price that was paid for us was Jesus Christ death on the cross. He has atoned for our sins and the price is submission to His Lordship.

John, Volumes 1 & 2 Our Friendship with Christ

The New Testament shows that the disciples as apostles continued to know themselves as Christ’s servants. Peter identified himself as “a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1), and Paul delighted to refer to himself as the bondservant of Jesus (Rom. 1:1; Titus 1:1). One of our chief privileges as Christians is to be personal servants of so great a Lord as God’s Son, Jesus. Among our fellow servants are not only the apostles but Moses, who at his death was described simply as a “servant of the LORD” (Deut. 34:5); Joshua, who declared, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15); and David, whom God identified as “my servant” (Ps. 89:20).

The idea here is one of a bond-slave. This is when a slave and his family became a to their master. When it came time to give the slave their freedom, the slave could choose to forego their freedom and become a bond-slave for life. The only time this would happen is when a slave and a master became friends. The slave did not want to be free because the master had been so good to him and his family and they had become friends. The slave would volunteer to have his ear pierced with an awl to signify his decision. He was committed to his master for the remainder of his life.

Bond-slave of Christ

For the christian today we too must become a bondslave of Christ. However it is a little different today. What it means to be a bond-slave of Christ is to change masters. Everyone is a slave to someone or something. Paul explains this in Romans 6:16-23

Romans 6:16–23 NASB95

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Becoming a bondslave to Christ means coming out of the bondage of sin and becoming a slave to righteousness. If a person continues to be a slave of sin then they will receive the wages of sin which is death. When a person becomes a slave to righteousness they get the gift of eternal life!

Privilege of being a friend of Jesus

The beauty of being a bond-slave to Christ is that we become his friend. A friend bears all to another friend. That is why Jesus told His disciples that He has shared everything with them. They knew that He was the Messiah and that through Him they would rule forever with eternal life.

This is the same for us today. Jesus shares with us everything. He has written it down for us to understand. He has given us His Holy Spirit to apply and live it. He has given us authority to teach His Word.

As we do these things in increasing measures our friendship and intimacy with Jesus grows. It grows because we begin to experience the tangibility of Christ in our lives.

It is unfortunate when a person places their faith in Jesus and stops growing at that point. The beauty of life is growing in friendship with Jesus.

Chosen and Appointed

John 15:16 NASB95

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Chosen

Jesus always initiates salvation. We never choose Him first. He chooses us. This is important to understand because many people try to get pre-qualified to be chosen by Jesus. They try to get their lives right before they try the “church thing”. Some may believe if they stop drinking, sleeping around, cussing, lying, and start being a better person they have a better shot at being pre-qualified for salvation. I want to give you a couple of passages of scripture that show that pre-qualification is wrong theology. Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 NASB95

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus chooses us while we are sinners. Christ choice for us is not based on our goodness but instead our need for forgiveness.

Ephesians 2:1–9 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It is by the mercy of God that we are chosen. It is not our own efforts to be a good moral person that we get salvation. Paul explains here that it is the gift of God. A person does not earn a gift. A person is given a gift.

Appointed to bear fruit

Jesus did not just save us to go to heaven. He saved us to bear fruit that remains. The fruit that remains is the influence we leave on this earth when we are gone. It is our legacy. The greatest legacy we can leave is to be a disciple maker. Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NASB95

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Making disciples is our mission as bond-servants and friends of Jesus. There are two parts to this mission. The first is to baptize. We baptize when we lead someone to Christ for salvation. This can only happen by evangelism. This means we are to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The second is to teach them to observe Christ commandments. We do this by living them first and teaching them second. You cannot simply teach someone the commandments with effectiveness. The value in the teaching comes from the learner observing the teacher living the commandments themselves.

When a teacher lives the commandments it demonstrates true belief and value in the commandments of Christ. It is then that the teacher can instruct with precedence the commandments of Christ.

Blessing of being chosen and appointed

Jesus says that whatever we ask of the Father in His name will be given to us. When we are functioning under the calling of Christ we have the assets of heaven at our disposal. It is dispensed through answered prayer.

This does not mean that we can ask the Father for anything and expect to get it. It must be to fulfill His calling.

1 John 5:14 NASB95

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Love One Another

We must love unconditionally, sacrificially, and fully

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NASB95

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

This is how Jesus loves us.