Jesus ain't just yo' homeboy

We were going through part of John 15 today and I was suddenly reminded of those t-shirts from like the early 2000's (or I actually don't remember when they became popular) that said, "Jesus is my homeboy." When I first saw those t-shirts, I thought it was kind of funny and not necessarily incorrect because hey, doesn't Jesus call us His friends?

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  

(John 15:14-15)

I don't know about y'all, but my friends don't necessarily command me to do what they tell me to do as a condition of being their friend. Sure, there are things they might request of me from time to time, and maybe there are implicit commands like "Don't tell the whole world the private things I share with you" or "Don't steal my things, lie to me, and/or punch me in the face", but it's not quite the same as Jesus telling His disciples: "You are my friends if you do what I command you."

That sounds kind of demanding...so what does He mean by the statement that we are His friends if we do what He commands? Jesus draws a comparison in the subsequent verse - if we were simply His servants, Jesus would just tell us to do things without sharing why, how, for what purpose. Plain and simple, we would have a duty to Him, our master, as servants who are to know nothing but do everything He commands. However, Jesus says, He calls us friends because He has made known to us all that He has heard from the Father - He shares His vision and His purpose, He sometimes even asks for our opinion! So basically, we have the privilege of being called His friends when otherwise, the most we would have become from following His commands are servants.

Note that because Jesus is Lord and Jesus is master, our friendship with Him is not a peer-to-peer-type friendship that we are used to as human beings. We can't demand His obedience to our commands as a condition of us being His friends. And so, while being a friend of Jesus/God opens us up to a relationship of intimacy with the King and Creator of the universe that just isn't possible in any other religion, it's important to remember that Jesus ain't just one of yo' homeboys because He is nothing like us. He is sinless and perfect and fully God (i.e. in addition to fully man)...what else is there to say? lol

But He does understand us, and He does love us, so what a blessing it is to know that as His followers, we are also called His friends!



P.S. A good verse to remember if you ever feel unloved: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" (v.9) - Jesus loves us to the same extent (now and forever, without holding anything back, for our good and for our joy) that the Father loves Jesus...boom.