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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. ~ John 15:14-17
In John 15:14-17, the Lord Jesus underlines the fact that His disciples are His friends. In v.14, the Lord Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I command." These words seem conditional, as if Jesus were telling them they are His friends only if they obey His commands. But, a careful reading of v.16 makes it plain that "if" is descriptive of their condition, for the Lord Jesus said in v.16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit." The Lord Jesus initiated their friendship long before the disciples obeyed. Their obedience was always in response to the friendship the Lord Jesus forged with them.
Now, the disciples are His friends, and He is laying down His life for them. Before we can love, we must be defined by the fact that Christ has deemed us His friends. When the Lord Jesus laid down His life for the disciples, they lacked understanding. After His resurrection, His plan came more and more into view. This act of their friend changed everything. His death now began to define them and they began to understand the nature of ministry, which is to in turn lay down our lives for our friends. This new way is so transformational. It works because people do not care what we know until they know that we care.
Further in v.15, we read, "for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." The disciples were fearful because He had told them He was leaving. The Lord Jesus is saying, "since you are worried about what’s going to happen when I’m gone, just keep doing the things that we did when we were together." The Lord Jesus had given His disciples a whole new way to live. He tells them that when they live that way, when they do the things that He taught them to do, then they will stay in fellowship with Him, despite the fact that He is going back to heaven.
When we obey the Lord Jesus, we are demonstrating our fellowship with Him. Remember, our relationship with Him is based solely on His work on the cross, but our fellowship with Him is largely based on us abiding in and walking with Him. When we understand His love for us, we make tangible that which the Lord Jesus has taught us. Obeying the Lord Jesus makes our love for Him tangible.
Now, love is something that grows. It develops. And, our obedience to the Lord Jesus will grow and develop and deepen over time. He is about to leave His disciples, they will be without His physical presence. So, He wants to set them on a path where they can express their love for Him. This activity gives them something to do and something to grow in so that their fellowship with the Lord Jesus doesn’t stop when He is gone.
Also, in v.15, we learn up to this point the disciples were servants in relationship to the Lord Jesus. This graduation to friendship commenced when the Lord Jesus identified Himself as their servant by washing their feet. Following this He brought them into the inner circle, sharing with them the intimate inter-relationships of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, into which they would soon be initiated.
According to v.16, the Lord Jesus says, "chose and appointed us to bear fruit." The Lord Jesus is saying, “I’m disclosing to you all of what the Father has taught me. I’m expanding your understanding of who God is, who I am, and what God is doing in the world. You will access this knowledge and experience by obeying me.”
That’s what fruit has been doing since the beginning of time. Dying to bring life. The Lord Jesus says that when we are His friends, we will yield "fruit that will last." We will love others like He loves because it is His fruit that we bare. Friendship with the Lord Jesus results in the expression of His love to us, and then to others.
