Context No. 2827 of 4322 · John

John 15:8-16: in context

8“In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. 9Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Jesus continues the discourse of the vine. My Father is glorified, he says, when you bear much fruit. As the Father loved me, I have loved you; now abide in my love. Then he lifts the whole relationship to a height that should stop us. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you.

The astonishing word is friends. The One who has every right to keep them as servants calls them friends instead, and defines that friendship by his own life laid down: greater love has no one than to lay down his life for his friends. And he closes off any pride we might take in it: you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear lasting fruit. The love, the friendship, the fruit, even the first move, all of it flows from him to us. Our part is to abide, to stay inside a love we did not begin.

Do I live as a servant keeping a careful distance, or as a friend Christ chose, abiding in a love I did not initiate?

Sources

John 15:16: "You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit."
John 15:15: "No longer do I call you servants... but I have called you friends."
1 John 4:19: "We love him, because he first loved us."