THE HIGHEST FORM OF RELATIONSHIP

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15 NIV)

How can we see the complete account of the Gospel? Making known the Gospel is the work of the Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. God as one has been constantly active in advancing the Gospel. The Scripture states that God had decided to make known everything to us because of only one reason—friendship. We are no longer like a servant who does not know his master’s affairs.

How blessed were the first disciples. The Lord Jesus called them friends and because of this, they were able to hear face to face the complete message from eternity. Notice the word everything from the above passage; no information was withheld from them. Everything that they needed to know, as in everything, was made known to them at that time—they were able to see the big picture of our great restoration.

Friendship is a significant part of the Gospel. The greatest love proclaimed by the Lord Jesus in the Scripture is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Yes, He did not only declare it but also demonstrated it. He revealed the highest form of love by laying down His own life for those He called friends.

To emphasise, it is because of this friendship that we were able to know the complete account of the Gospel. Our Creator knows everything about us, and He is more than willing to make Himself known to us because we are His friends.

With God, friendship is a boundless deal. The Lord Jesus told His disciples about the parable of the shrewd manager and gave them this conclusion:

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:9 NIV)

The manager had acted shrewdly by partly cancelling the debts of those who owed his master, thinking that these people would welcome him into their homes (since he could no longer work). The master did not condemn but instead commended the dishonest manager. Why? The master himself is willing to cancel debts for the sake of friendship. The Lord Jesus is the master who called off our debts not only partly but wholly because we are His friends. And He cancelled our debts by paying the price with His own life.

Also, the Lord asserted that we cannot serve both God and money. This means that the only way to serve God in relation to money is to use it in the context of friendship (money will vanish, but real friendship will remain forever).

Friendship is the highest form of relationship. This does not mean that we need to put our friends in priority over our family. Every relationship is progressive, and each can reach its highest form. A husband who was able to establish friendship with his wife means that their relationship has reached its fullest. How beautiful to see the friendship between a father and his son, or between a mother and her daughter, or between siblings, or between colleagues, and so on. But these are even more delightful to see: God establishing friendship with His people, the Creator becoming friends with His creations, the King calling His heirs as His friends. We are God’s people, His only creations who were fashioned after His own image and likeness. And we are His friends whom He declared as the only heirs to His everlasting kingdom.

Before going back to the Father, the Lord Jesus said,

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26 NIV)

The Holy Spirit was given the task to teach God’s people about the Lord Jesus. Just as there is only one way to know the Father, so there is only one way to know Jesus. To be one with the Holy Spirit is to be one with Jesus. This is the work of the Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit—to know God, for us to understand the eternal Gospel.

Again, take note of the words ‘all things’ and ‘everything’ from the above passage. The Holy Spirit is our friend who will remind us of everything that the Lord Jesus said. The generations of believers that follow (including our generation) were all able to see the entire message that the Lord Jesus had given to the first disciples. This is all because of the friendship that we have with God.

But when was the beginning of this friendship? Was it after the foundation of the world or before the beginning of time?

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We can refer to the following books if we want to know more about our origin in eternity past, our foretold journey on earth, and our new beginning in eternity future: