We may know the lyrics “I am a friend of God, He calls me friend!” from Israel & New Breed’s song “Friend of God” in 2004. The lyrics usually sung in response to Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in John 15 where He called His disciples as friends and not servants. In the friendship world, we often hear the phrase “Birds of the same feather flock together.” The phrase illustrates how people with similar interests, perspectives, and characteristics tend to mingle. Another way of putting that is “Those with the same frequency will vibe together.” But, can we apply that to this kind of friendship? Are we in the same frequency with Jesus to be called His friends?
Hi dear little ones, I’m sure you all have read what Jesus said in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends…” This is just a slice of the teaching Jesus was giving to His disciples, and it’s nothing about bird or feather but about a tree, its vine, branches, and fruit.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
John 15:1-2 (NIV)
Getting up from their supper, Jesus took His disciples to walk along the Kidron Valley. It’s probably just one of the many evening strolls they had, but that particular evening felt a little bit unsettling. Not because the valley they were passing–that was a burial place, even until now–nor the chilly evening wind in the month of Nisan. Jesus knew where He was heading, but the boys were clueless.
There were also vineyards on the slopes of the valley, and Jesus’ words broke the cold night. “I am the true vine,” He said, “And My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
It was a common sense for the disciples to know how grapevines work and how its vinedresser operates. But something that was usual was now given a new meaning from their Teacher. As the vine, Jesus kept repeating the same word throughout this conversation in John 15. In the NIV translation, the repeated word is “REMAIN.”
All these repeated words of “REMAIN” lead us to our topic: Friendship with Jesus. It is not your typical friendship, because Jesus said in the later verses:
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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. 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. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:12-17 (NIV)
What kind of friendship is this? Shouldn’t there be equality in friendship when none commands the other? Yet Jesus said that the disciples were His friends only if they do what He commanded. Now look at the next sentence what Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.” The disciples went from servants to friends, and the reason for their upgrade was, “For everything that I learned from the Father I have made known to you.”
This is the wavelength of frequency that Jesus set: to know the words of the Father. It was not a random talk to break the eerie and chilly evening in the Kidron Valley. It was a statement for the disciples to remain in Jesus and to keep the relationship with Him, the True Vine. Jesus was preparing the disciples that “Nope, I won’t go anywhere. I’ll die but I’m alive, so remain in Me, remain in My words, remain in My teaching. For it is from the Father, it is the love of the Father for you who remain, intact with the vine.”
Jesus called the disciples friends because He taught them everything from the Father, so they could grow and bear fruit for Him, the True Vine. Now what about us? What Jesus said that night has a condition, that if one does not have the word of God or lives outside of Jesus, the True Vine, then they are not His branch. They are not to be called friends of Jesus. Can you also be called friends of Jesus?
That’s a tiny little thing for today. I hope you are blessed and share this blessings to others. Let’s walk our little steps together and worship the Lord with all our beings. God bless you!
Tiny Little Things 
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