8.1 Friendship
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
You are My friends if you do as I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:14-15).
Jesus commands us to believe in Him, to put Him upon ourselves by faith. – And this we do.
I am a friend of God.
The Church of Christ expressed as each local gathering together is NOT built upon friendship. That is such a wonderful, even critical, understanding from Patterns of Home. Community is built around friendship, to preserve it as its heart.
Jesus’ Definition. There is only one thing to adjust in the translation of these two verses. We also paraphrase these words by bringing them into the reality of an all-here-now Christ.
Here is the definition Jesus gives to friendship. For ALL that I am hearing in the presence of My Father, I am always causing you to know. Jesus was not speaking of delivering to us a finite body of information. He was speaking of Himself in us. Yet this is an extraordinary statement, one that I have never considered nor ever heard taught. Friendship, according to Jesus, means NO secrets between Jesus and us.
Dictionary Definition. The Greek word John used is philos, meaning – beloved, dear, friendly; a friend. Philos comes from phileo, or brotherly love. Our English word “friend” originally was the word for “to love” in the old Germanic languages.
Friend (Webster’s 1926): One who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection that he seeks his society and welfare.
Friendship (Webster’s 1926): The state of being friends, friendly relation, or attachment to a person or between persons; affection arising from mutual esteem and goodwill; friendliness, amity.
– Affection arising from mutual esteem and goodwill. –
Declaring Father’s Name. Jesus’s words in John 15 are amplified in the strongest line, the concluding line, of His prayer that birthed the Kingdom. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26). Let’s paraphrase this just a bit. I speak Your name inside of them and am continuously speaking it, that the love with which You love Me may be inside of all that they are, and I inside of them (together).
One more thing before we talk about this extraordinary quality we have uncovered. Indeed, I am completely overwhelmed by the remarkable things that have appeared in this short lesson thus far.
In EXACTLY the Same Way. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. – This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:9 & 12). – In exactly the same way that I have loved you.
No one entering into God can fulfill this word, regardless of any pretended and momentary sentiment. Only AFTER one has entered into a full acceptance of living only in Christ, existing only inside the sinless perfection of God, and there TURNED AROUND, now seated with God upon the Mercy Seat of heaven, only such a one can begin even to think about the possibility of actually fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to love one another exactly as He loves us.
Mercy Seat and Cross. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).
We are merging together two specific images of our present position, the position from which we must go forth into Church. The first picture is the Mercy Seat with us seated there, between the wings of the cherubs as the active love of God stretched over us, and as the tip point of the fire, the Energeia, that is God.
It is ONLY inside this first picture that the second picture enters, that of the cross, of arms spread wide embracing all who belong to Jesus, laying down our lives for our friends. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13).
A Highway for God. As we live inside of Jesus’ love inside of us, so we stretch forth our arms to love and embrace one another.
As I look through these Symmorphy courses, I see a massive turning point that happened for me exactly half way through. Symmorphy III: Kingdom, Lesson 15.3 A Highway for God. Up until that moment, our thoughts remained in knowing to the fullest extent possible Christ living as us. But in that lesson, Father’s concern fully entered our picture. And from then until now, everything we are learning is coming out from our desire to know us living as Christ.
Here is the deepest meaning of us living as Christ – love one another.
I Am Your Friend. In other words, here is my point. Everything that Jesus is to us, we become, then, to one another. And just as Jesus is continuously hearing Father and, in the same instance, causing us to know what Father is speaking, so we then express that same friendship to one another. And thus we are living as Jesus, going forth with Father as the Mercy Seat into the Church.
What does it mean, then, that I am your friend? It means that I entertain in myself for you sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection such that I am always seeking your society and welfare, that is, your presence face to face with me daily and your continual well-being in every way.
Each Other’s Company. There is an accusation that comes against brethren who find a calling to Community arising in their hearts. So, you think that just because you get together on a property, that somehow you’re going to “become one,” or that God is “going to show up?”
Uh – NO! Such a way of thinking has never entered our minds. God has shown up, that’s why we seek each other’s company. God has made us one, that’s why we walk together.
I have had the privilege of having a number of very close friends through the course of my life. When I was younger, I spent much of my time with my friends; it was only natural that we gravitated together. In fact, I have always gone out of my way to be together with my friends.
Protecting Friendship. At present, my close friend is my wife, Maureen. I love doing things with Maureen. I have traveled some the last few years without my wife. Although I enjoyed my time spent with friends along the way, the miles between are empty to me. I would much prefer to enjoy those miles, and my visits with you, together with Maureen, my best friend.
Yet community CANNOT be built upon friendship, for to do so in any way (as the naysayers accuse – let’s get together to “become” friends) would destroy friendship. Everything built in community is built to protect friendship, that it might blossom in full expression – as it already IS.
Thoughts Becoming Words. Now, let’s bring back into our picture Jesus’ definition of friendship, a definition that is the heart of Church and the protected heart of any local Community of Christ. ALL that I am hearing in the presence of My Father, I am always causing you to know.
We must keep in mind the distinction between the Father and Jesus. The Father is thoughts, that is, the pro-knowing of God in which Father holds all of His infinite thoughts regarding all things. When Father wants those thoughts to unfold in creation, He shares them with Jesus. Jesus is God’s thoughts spoken. Jesus is God’s thoughts becoming heard and seen.
Holding Nothing Back. The Father does not dump on Jesus ALL of His thoughts regarding everything, for Jesus, then, to dump all of those thoughts as words on us. What Jesus is continuously declaring inside of us, causing us to be the visible knowledge of, is those particular thoughts of Father being released now to us.
What Jesus is saying is that, “As your Friend, I hold nothing back. Everything available in the present moment from Father to you, I am speaking inside of you as Myself in you.” So, which thoughts of Father are released to us through Jesus causing us to be the knowledge of God? For starters, every word in the Bible as it is known inside the Holiest and as the tree of Life.
The Highest Respect. But, this lesson is not on our knowing of God’s knowing of us. This lesson is on the quality of friendship, a quality that causes me to WANT TO BE (a more current word than “sentiment”) together daily with you, my actual brother and sister, born of the same womb. And as we gather together into any local community, our first consideration as we design our life together is to protect that friendship, a friendship that values above all each other’s person and interests, well-being and concerns.
How do we hold one another in the highest respect and with the deepest regard? Every decision in community places itself around the answer to this question.
Perfect Rest and Pure Delight. If we imagine that we do anything to cause friendship, the community is already lost, disband immediately before you hurt one another. To build “upon” friendship is to pour a solid slab of obligation on top of everyone.
And we do not take Jesus’ definition of His friendship towards us as “making sure no one has any secrets.” We do not treat Jesus as a “magpie,” but rather rest in the certainty of His love. In the same way, our friendship together includes absolutely the deepest respect for each one’s privacy and solitude. It is a perfect rest in knowing one another. – And a pure delight in hearing those things our brothers and sisters share.
I Am. There is no more profound proof of our complete and absolute UNION with the Lord Jesus Christ than these words. ALL that I am hearing in the presence of My Father, I am always causing you to know. Yet I have never seen these words nor ever heard of them being considered. Here is another way of saying the exact same thing. – ALL that Jesus IS – I AM.
And again, here is the exact same thing in the Church. …have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:25-26). If Jesus is all that I am, then I care about your concerns equal with and more than my own. I, by nature, seek your benefit.
Koinonia. Now we know how to position every definition of life together through the rest of this course and as we live it forever. Every consideration wraps itself around the open and untouched space of friendship, to preserve that friendship as the heart of Father’s site and the heart of ours.
There is a Greek word that expresses this heart of the gospel, this heart of Jesus in His Church, and that word is koinonia, found in its various forms (noun and verb) 39 times in the New Testament. Koinonia (etc.) is translated as fellowship, communion, sharing, participation, partnership, contribution, ready to share, be partaker, communicate, distribute, partaker, partner, companion. The remainder of this session is koinonia.