In Exodus 4, Moses gave God every reason why he was the wrong person for the job. And God patiently answered every objection. That conversation — honest, real, full of pushback — is what friendship with God looks like. Jesus defined it in John 15: “You are my friends if you do what I command.” Not servants just following orders. Friends who know what their Master is doing. Today’s devotional is about what that kind of friendship actually looks like.
We didn’t plan to spend seventeen days here. But John 15 has a way of doing that. Seventeen verses — the vine and the branches, pruning, abiding, laying down your life, being called a friend, being chosen — all of it closing with the same sentence it opened with: “Love one another.” This post is a look back at all seventeen days before we move forward. Because John 15 doesn’t end when the series does. It becomes the lens for everything that follows — Genesis to Revelation.
There’s a word Jesus uses in John 15:15 that changes everything: servant. Not as a title He’s giving — as a title He’s taking away. A servant does the work but never knows why. Never gets the full picture. Never gets let in. Jesus says that’s not what He’s calling us anymore. He uses a different word — and then tells us exactly what that word means. What does it mean to be called a friend of God?