You are My Friends If . . .

12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 -John 15:12-17

In John 15, Jesus is giving His final words of encouragement and instruction to His friends before He goes to the cross to lay down His life for His friends.

Who are His friends?

You are My friends if you do what I command you.

What did He command?

This is my commandment, that you love one another.

He singles this one out. It must be pretty important. Sure, there are specific instructions elsewhere, but whatever we do, we should do it out of love for one another. Just as He loved us. Loving us enough to guide us into the truth.

By the way, He says He doesn’t call us slaves, but friends. Note the distinction. We’re still slaves, because we’re either slaves to Him or slaves to sin. But because He loves us, he considers us friends. I love that.

At this point in the evening, Judas Iscariot has already gone to betray Him. He chooses this time to tell the faithful this:

Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.

And that is what He will do in a matter of hours after Judas betrays Him with a kiss.

That is what they will do, too, eventually. Of the disciples, all but John died a martyr’s death (Church history tells us that John was to be boiled in oil – but it didn’t take. He continued to preach from the pot. That’s why he ended up in exile. For more on that, click here.) Crazy.

The AI image above is from a prompt about what Jesus might look like welcoming his friends to heaven. I tried to get specific, and they turned out awful. Truly cringeworthy. But this one conveys the right tone.

Disclaimer: I write fiction. Sometimes, I let my imagination run away with me.

Here are some of my musings:

John, the disciple Jesus loved: I imagine a long bro hug and tears from both of them.

Peter: I imagine chest bumps and back slaps and exclamations like a Marines’ reunion. Hoora, I think?

Mary Magdalene: She falls at his feet, weeping, wrapping her arms around His knees and clinging to Him the way she did after His resurrection. He pulls her into a hug and lets her cry it out.

What about you? How do you think He’ll welcome you? I can’t wait!