At one point years ago, I needed to support my family while planting a new church, and I got a job as an accountant for a large tech company. It was during one of the information economy’s boom cycles, and the pace was crazy. There was so much work to do it became difficult to keep track of it all including remembering to pick up documents I’d send to the printer down the hall. As soon as I’d hit the print button on my computer, something else would need my attention and I’d forget to retrieve the copy. So, I came up with the idea of sticking a post-it note to my shirt before getting interrupted. That way, even if I got distracted and forgot about the print job, eventually someone would see the note on my chest and ask what it was for. And that would remind me to go to the printer.
Since then, I’ve become grateful for reminders. And we encounter an important one in the four-verse section that begins with John 15:12. Jesus revisited what he’d previously described in chapter 13 as a NEW commandment. But this time he emphasized its importance by saying it was HIS. It belonged to and flowed from his OWN sacrificial love and would be the new standard for how his followers would bear his image in this world. And he chose to remind them of this amid his invitation to abide in him as branches rooted in a vine because their ability to fulfill it would be completely dependent on having a deep connectedness to HIM.
He told them there’s no greater way of expressing this kind of love than to lay down one’s life. And although he was certainly prefiguring what he was about to do on the cross, I don’t think he meant them to understand dying in someone’s place as the only way to demonstrate it. The Greek word used to describe this laying-down is not specifically about dying. At its core, it describes something’s placement or how it’s positioned. I believe Jesus was saying that those who follow him will express his love by how they posture their lives in relation to others. Instead of pursuing a position above them, they will devote themselves, as he did, to coming under them.
Along with this, he clarified to whom they were to offer this love. He did this by his use of the word translated into English as friends. It can be used as a noun to identify a group of people who one is close to, but it’s primarily an adjective that describes the way someone is valued and treated. Jesus was calling his followers to see everyone as someone to be loved like a friend.
Then, the Lord used this word in a way that seems contrary to that. It sounds as though the only people he considers friends are those who do what he commands. But the conditional particle in this sentence rendered with the English word if can also mean when. And considering Jesus was specifically referring to his new commandment, the verse could easily be paraphrased as, “You demonstrate OUR friendship WHEN you love others this way.” And he immediately confirmed this by saying, “I HAVE called you friends,” not “I WILL call you friends IF you keep my commands.”
Jesus also drew a stark contrast between servants and friends. He was emphatic that he did NOT think of his disciples as servants. And this was essential to their ability to live out his commandment. They would never be able to invite others into friendship with the Savior if they hadn’t first experienced him in that way.
That’s not possible for us either. If we’re going to be the kind of Jesus-people who live out HIS commandment, we also need to embrace the full impact of the unimaginable grace that has been extended to us within which he calls us friends.