Friends

The Lord Jesus Christ looks for friends in those which to whom He can entrust the intimate desires of his heart.

Eliseo Apablaza

On the night that He was delivered up, whilst Jerusalem bustled with the preparations for the party and the enemies of God planned the death of Christ, the Lord Jesus was together with the Twelve, in the intimacy of the upper room.

After washing their feet, He told them, among other things: " No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you." (John 15:15). These words carry the whole weight of the moment in which they were spoken. When He had almost finished His ministry, the Lord honors them by considering them His friends, not His servants. They would never have dared to think of themselves as His friends, not even after three and a half years of being with Him. But He, in His greatness and magnanimity, draws close those who he called His friends.

What difference is there between a friend and a servant? Undoubtedly there is a great deal. In biblical times there was even bigger difference than today. The servant arrived at the door of the master's house, and received orders which he then hurried away to complete. The friend, on the other hand, entered the house, sat down with the master, shared his food and, also, over the dinner table would discuss his plans and projects.

According to the Lord's words, the difference between the two is in their knowledge. The servant " knoweth not what his lord doeth"; on the other hand, the friend is informed about everything.

There are Christians who only appear to be servants. They obey orders and complete them, but they don't know what the project, or their Master's final purpose is. They have never sat down with Him to enjoy the after-dinner conversation. They don't know the plans that He has drawn out, or how they can work in a better way for its fulfillment.

However, God not only needs to have servants, but also friends. God needs to be able to share His plans with man, and to have their understanding co-work.

An antecedent

About four thousand years ago, God had a friend called Abraham. He once went to visit him, because He needed to share His burden with somebody. It was a surprise visit. That afternoon Abraham was seated at the tent door, and suddenly he saw Him. He recognized Him, of course, (He was his friend), and ran to assist him (as one does with friends).

After eating together, and giving him a gift (He told him he'd have a son) God took Abraham for a stroll, and opened His heart to him. For some time He had been worried about the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah which was now unbearable. He was now thinking of visiting them, to check if what He had heard was true.

God didn't tell Abraham that He would destroy those cities, but Abraham, who knew His friend, understood that it would be so. And then he began to intercede for them: "Wilt thou consume the righteous with the wicked?" Of course, we know that Abraham was not sufficiently insistent so as to save them from destruction. The sin of those cities had exhausted God's patience and, in His perfect righteousness, God destroyed them.

But here, above all else, the wonderful friendship between God and the righteous is revealed; how God needs man, and hopes that man will work with Him, and even that He may be hindered by him. Here we have the opportune antecedent that illustrates the Lord Jesus' words to the Twelve that day in the upper room.

What God is doing today

The Lord Jesus needed to have twelve friends (although we know that one betrayed Him) to whom He could tell what the Father had told Him, and to whom He could commend His work. Today it is the same. The Lord wants not only to communicate the plans that He has, but also what He wants to do today, not only among us, but beyond. We know that what He is doing today is not exactly the same as that which He did in the days of the Twelve, nor that which He did in the XVI century, or in the XX century.

What is the Lord doing in these days? What does He want us to do for Him? His friends, those few individuals who have been accepted into His intimate circle, should know how to answer these, and many other questions. (Because it is not according to him who wants or him that runs; the Lord said: "you did not choose me, but I chose you").

The work which the Lord is carrying out today is multifaceted, but we know very little about it. We take a certain emphasis and we go after it like a horse with blinkers, without looking what is happening in other directions. Do we adopt a certain method that appears to be very successful (and can be translated in statistics), but are we pointing in the same direction as God? I myself fear that there are Christians who act as if they only knew the Great Commission. (Of course, we should know it and obey it). But there is more than that in the Lord's heart.

Watchman Nee discovered that the work of God covers, at least, three great areas: evangelization, edification and restoration. Those three areas appear being carried out in the Scriptures by three main apostles, and are suggested by their secular work at the time of their calling. Peter was "casting a net into the sea"; Paul was a "tentmaker", and John was "mending their nets". (See Mark 1:16, 19 and Acts 18:3).

A great part of Christianity is exclusively trying to carry out Peter's occupation. Of course, the task of saving souls is a noble one, and an urgent task. But that fundamentally satisfies man's heart. The other two tasks have to do with what we do with those that we have won for God, and with satisfying God's heart.

Will they just be stones piled by the roadside after having been taken out of the quarry? Will they just be fish, abandoned on the seashore after being brought out of the sea? That is not the perfect will of God. As in the past, God has a desire for today. And this desire is the same one that He made known in the days of Moses, David and Zerubbabel. He wants to dwell among men, and hopes His house will be built. And if the house becomes a ruin, He wants it to be restored. And, as we know, that house is built with living stones.

But, naturally, this is a task for friends; those who know the intimate desire of His heart. The friends of God, like Peter, suffer labor pains for the salvation of the souls. But also, like Paul, they suffer labor pains again so that Christ be formed in them. And also, like John, they suffer Christ's pains for His church in ruins.
The wicked servants of the Lord will traffic and thrive over the souls of the men (Revelation 18:13); but His friends carry out this triple task. They know the value that souls have for God, and the future that awaits them when being built together in that which today is not yet seen (Revelation 21).

The characteristics of friends

Christ's friends have the sensitivity to discover the Lord's desires, beyond His words. This is the sensitivity that the Samaritan leper who was healed by the Lord had. He didn't only obey His order to go and show himself to the priests (as they all did), but rather when he realized that he had been healed, he returned, (even at the risk of disobeying the explicit order that the others followed), and therefore satisfying the Lord's heart.

Friends know the character of their Friend, and they can perceive what His plans are. When they know them (this knowledge is more than intellectual, it is spiritual), they give up their own agenda in order to do what He wants. To make an intelligent and ambitious person give up their own plans and goals in order to meet those of another is very difficult. This explains why Jesus has so few friends.

In other words, the friends have to die. They, like Lazarus, must go through that painful experience, so that the resurrection life can later be manifest in others. The presence of a resurrected Lazarus will produce Mary's desire to pour out her exquisite perfume. (John 12).

So, when they have died to themselves, they are completely surrendered to the Friend's will, and will obey Him in everything. ("You are my friends if you do what I command"). They love His word, and they obey it, not with the pharisaical intention of mounting up their own righteousness, but with perfect devotion, which doesn't fear, but loves, because they know they are loved.

The friends recognize and look for one another

The apostle John remained impacted by the Lord's words when he called them "friends". Although many years had gone by, he never forgot them. For that reason, when concluding his third letter (which is also when his life concluded), he says goodbye to Gaius in a very special way: "The peace is with you. Peace be unto thee. The friends salute thee. Salute the friends by name. " (v. 14). In the first letter, John treats the brothers and sisters as "little children", "young men", and "fathers". Now, when the outside opposition grows and the inside circle closes, John remembers the beautiful words of the Lord in such a similar moment. Now John has friends.

What does John now speaking of friends mean? It means that the time has gone by and that relationships have become intimate, and that faithfulness has been tried and tested. Now there are not only brothers and sisters, there are friends. It also means that Christ's friends recognize one another. They know they are loved by Christ (v.1), and they love one another. Now that John is very old, he could use his authority and prestige to call everyone his "children". But in the same way as the Lord, the greater he became - to put it in such a way- the closer he brought those whom he loved.

Friends recognize and look for one another. Because they need one another. Outside, the stormy tide increases, but here inside, with the Lord, they are His friends, and are also friends among themselves. Their Lord's heart is poured out upon them, and they share their secrets to one another. Tomorrow it is necessary to go out and to do the work, until their Lord's heart is satisfied.

May the Lord grant us the grace of being part of this beautiful circle of His. Amen.