'Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I
call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My
Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have
chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in My name, He may give it you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another.'--JOHN xv. 14-17.
A wonderful word has just dropped from the Master's lips, when He spoke
of laying down His life for His friends. He lingers on it as if the
idea conveyed was too great and sweet to be taken in at once, and with
soothing reiteration He assures the little group that they, even they,
are His friends.
I have ventured to take these four verses for consideration now,
although each of them, and each clause of them, might afford ample
material for a discourse, because they have one common theme. They are
a description of what Christ's friends are to Him, of what He is to
them, and of what they should be to one another. So they are a little
picture, in the sweetest form, of the reality, the blessedness, the
obligations, of friendship with Christ.