"No longer am I terming you slaves, for the slave is not aware what his lord is doing. Yet I have declared you friends, for all that I hear from My Father I make known to you"
Johns Account 15: 15, Concordant New Testament
One of our discussions this week centered around the difference between a friendship and a relationship. A gym rat friend mentioned the possibility that he shared a relationship with a girl he had just met at the gym a few days before. Of course, I was dumbfounded at his announcement seeing the fifty-year age difference between them. What followed was a spirited discussion on the difference between a friendship and a relationship. We're told that Jesus Himself has indeed referred to us as His friends, making known to us what He hears from the Father {Johns Account 15:15}. But is this the depth of our connection with Christ? No! For Jesus has also spoken to our union life relationship within He and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}. Obviously, Jesus knows the difference between a common friendship and a deeper intimate relationship. Indeed, that is the difference between the two. One is more on a level of common familiarity while the other involves a more intimate connection. There is a reason by which a marriage is referred to in a relationship sense, as a husband and wife share a deeper, more intimate connection than that from when they first met. That friendship has evolved into a relationship over time. This got me thinking, do we simply want to be friends with God, or do we desire something more. Yes, Jesus has referred to us as friends, but I believe that He was attempting to illustrate for those listening His closer connection to them. A friend shares more about his life with another friend. A friend involves his friends more into the activities of his life. But you better believe that there are things I would involve someone I was in an intimate relationship with that I would keep my friends separate from. I am not involved in all of the aspects of the marriage relationships of my friends. For that I am grateful. That being said, I have come to know Christ Jesus in a more intimate way over time. To me, Jesus is much more than a friend.
In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you
Johns Account 14: 20. Concordant New Testament
Many believers have claimed that they desire a closer, more intimate relationship with God. They do not simply want to be His friend. For His part, God has assured us that we share in an intimate relationship with Him {Johns Account 14:20}. Our connection with the Father reaches back to our own creation. I know that I have been lovingly created in the Fathers likeness {Genesis 1:27}. We're told that He has known us before we were born {Jeremiah 1:5}. This has never been simply a casual friendship, but a more intimate connection with God. So much so, that He has called us His own {First Epistle of John 3:1}. We are so much more than friends, we are his children. So, what is it that we can learn from our union relationship with the Father? Well, first and foremost, we can see that a relationship is far more intimate than any friendship. We can also see the love which the Father has for us in that He would declare us as His children. The mainstream church might stake the claim that our sin has separated us from God, but this is simply the lie spoken by the separation theology of the church. For Christ Jesus has died to sin that God would enjoy the intimate relationship with His creation which He once had in the garden{Paul to the Romans 6:10}. The desire of the Father is not that He would have friendship with His creation, but that we would realize the intimate connection of our life in Him.
~Scott~
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