A Chosen Friend

 

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!  This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.  There is no greater love than 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 slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.  You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.   John 15:9-16

My wife is my best friend.  We have lots of fun together.  We fight and argue.  We have had nights where I slept on the couch, and a few where she put me there.  Deservingly.  I will never forget how we started dating.  We worked together at Burger King, and she asked me out.  Well let me rephrase that.  She told me I was going to take her out for her birthday.  I do not remember having an option in the matter.  The funny thing was I had to cancel the date because I was forced to work that night.  She was so mad!  I promised to make it up to her and be her date at the company’s Christmas party.  That was December 23, 1983.  We dated off and on for twelve more years before we got married.  We have three children and soon to be nine grandchildren.  Our lives are filled with joy and lots of love.  I am forever grateful that she chose me to take her out, and happy she graciously accepted to be my wife.  But if you let her tell you, she will say she ‘let’ me marry her.  As the years have passed, I realize how special it was that she chose me.  It gave me context to understand how it is equally as special to know I did not just choose to be a follower of Christ.  He first chose me as He has chosen each of you.

We are all chosen by Christ as His friends.  In today’s verses, my initial inclination was to be drawn to the middle, where Jesus talked about the greatest love of one laying down their life for their friends.  Of course, this was a precursor to the crucifixion.  However, reading the whole paragraph delved into not only a much deeper love Jesus had for His disciples but also the love He wished for them to show each other and the world.  It was a selfless (lay down one’s life), submitting (do what I command), freeing (I no longer call you slaves), and trusting (a master doesn’t confide in his slaves) kind of love.  Reading these verses give us a clear indication of what a healthy and loving relationship is like.  But first, it requires a choice.  I never really caught onto the part about Jesus choosing the Apostles.  This is truly significant because remember in Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, and John 1:39, 46, He asked them to ‘follow’ or ‘come.’  We often believe that we found God and are grateful we were given a new life to follow Him.  But the real prize is realizing that He chose us first!  This fact is amazing to me, and we know this to be true because David spoke of such saying:

You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
    They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
    they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
    you are still with me!  Psalm 139:16-18

We are never separated from the love of God if we choose to follow Him.  Last week, I spoke of how God delights in us.  Today, we are to rejoice in how God loves us.  It is complete and without fail.  I now understand how Israel Houghton wrote in song, “I am a friend of God.  He calls me friend.”  Jesus said it.  Before we said ‘yes’ to Him, He chose us!  Whenever you begin to doubt your place or situation, never forget this.  What in your friendship with God needs repair?  How can you befriend someone as Jesus befriended you?  My prayer is that we remember that we did not just choose God as our savior.  He chose us as a friend.  Amen.