Your best friend

There’s a story about Henry Ford asking a man he was having lunch with, “Who is your best friend?” The man started to mention several people and Mr. Ford interrupted him and said, “I’ll tell you who your best friend is. Your best friend is the one who brings out the best in you.”

Most people probably like to think of Jesus as their friend and someone who brings out the best in them, but Jesus describes friendship in John 15 and it’s a little more serious than that.

Here’s what the Red Letters tell us, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jesus also talks a lot about love and prayer and fruit in this passage. He also shares how He has included us in the intimate details of His life, mission and purpose. I don’t know about you but for me often love is the hard part. I can follow the rules pretty well, just tell me where the lines are, and I will always color inside those lines but love, love can be hard.

One of the points in John 15:12-17 is that friends want the best for one another and we are willing to pay the cost of friendship and that includes loving in the hard times. I think we all have friends that are better friends to us than we are to them. What I mean by that is they call us, but we never call them. They text us, but we never text them. They remember our birthdays, but we never remember their birthdays. I have someone in my life like that and it pains me, but I have not repented.

Love is only known by its actions. Love is not merit based, sometimes it runs against our feelings. Jesus mentions sacrifi ce in verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” I doubt we will ever be asked to do something like that but what about when we are asked to do small things that inconvenience us? What about continuing to hang in there when people are driving us nuts?

A man asked his commanding officer if he could go out onto the battlefield and rescue a friend that had been wounded. He was told he could go but his commanding officer told him it would be a waste, that his friend was probably dead and that he would probably get wounded as well. The man went on his mission, and he did reach his friend and he was injured. His commanding officer gave him a big I told you so, he said, “See. Your friend is dead, and you have been wounded. I told you going onto the battlefi eld would be a waste.” The man shared that his time was well spent, and it served its purpose. “When I got to my friend, he was still alive and my friend told me before he died, ‘I knew you would come.’” I think we all need friends that love and are committed and I think we all need to be a friend that loves and has that kind of commitment.

He told me to tell you that.