Ye are My Friends

By J.B. Stoney


      THE Lord says to His disciples, "I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you," John 15:15.

The evidence or mark, then, of being His friend, and not merely a servant, is that I know what my Lord does, and that I have received a knowledge of His mind. He is a servant who does not know his lord's mind; he is a friend who knows the mind of Christ. If the Lord communicates His mind to me, He regards me as His friend. If He does not communicate His mind to me, I am, however devoted, no higher than a servant. To be a friend to anyone, I must necessarily take an interest in his concerns. It is in the assurance that I have this interest that I can be regarded as a friend, or can care to be one.

But if the one who accepts me as his friend is greatly superior to me, it is evident that I must grow into ability and appreciation of his order of things before he can either treat me as a friend, or I myself be equal to the duties of one. The higher the duties imposed on a friend, the more unselfish he must be, and the more at liberty to give himself to these duties. For the duties are not a tax, but the pleasing activities of friendship.

No one can, then, be called by Christ 'My friend' unless he has first been befriended by Christ; unless he has been so entirely relieved and comforted in his own heart that he now finds it his duty and happiness to devote himself to the One who has afforded to his soul boundless rest and peace. If I know the rest and blessedness which He unfolds to the soul believing on Him and walking in His ways, I cannot but live Him. I elect to live what I enjoy. I must first enjoy Christ as my life before I shall in any degree bear witness of Him. Very often earnest souls begin the other way; they try to bear witness of Him in order that they may enjoy Him; but while the effort is to enjoy Him, there must be a seeking one's own things.

One's own spiritual enjoyment is before the mind and thoughts, and this circumscribes one to the limits of oneself, instead of imparting the ability to enter into the extent and fullness of Christ's heart and purposes. The things of Christ may occupy me, and yet the thought uppermost in my mind may be my own enjoyment in Christ; and though with this state there may be a good deal of interesting devotedness and zeal, yet the object is not Christ. Contrast this state with that of one who, enjoying Christ, knowing Him as the only resource for the heart, occupies himself with every interest and concern of Christ here. All his gain and all he enjoys is in Christ, who is absent.

Hence he links himself with every interest of His in this scene through which he is passing. The joy of his heart is to be a witness in it of Him who is the rest of his own heart, outside and apart from it. If the absent Christ is the rest and strength and comfort of my heart above and beyond everything in this world, surely the only suited and natural place for me -- my heart claims it of me as His love requires it - is that I should be here for Him, His interests my interest. If I live with Him outside of this scene, it is necessary and incumbent on me to live for Him while passing through it.

 John 14 unfolds to me how Christ absent is the strength and comfort of my heart. Faith and love each reach a consummation satisfying to the heart in that wondrous chapter. Here is opened out to me my present blessedness in Him. When I know Him thus -- every element of comfort and strength being supplied, my soul by the Spirit being the abode of the Father -- I have nothing to seek. I know "the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge"; I am "filled even to all the fullness of God".

If I have nothing to seek for myself, and if Christ is the resource and strength of my heart, surely nothing can interest me here but His things. Then I truly take my place in John 15; this chapter is then my external history, as John 14 is my internal. I am here for Christ, for my heart rests in Him; and as walking here for Him according to His commandments, He calls me not servant but friend. It is a special favour connected with testimony.

The one great distinct mark of Christ's confidence in a soul is the communication to it of His mind. It is one only known to the witness. In John 14 He is my friend; He satisfies my heart in the fullness of His love and power. But as here for Him He calls me His friend, He communicates His mind to me; I am made to know what my Lord does, which a servant does not know.

 Many a one knows something of rest and comfort in Christ, to whom He does not communicate His mind. A father loves all his children; each shares his bounty, but he does not confide his mind and affairs to each. He does so only as he thinks there is interest and capacity in any of them to enter into and help in them. Christ's love for the weakest lamb is often more tenderly expressed than for those more grown; yet He does not communicate His mind, or treat as His friend, any who are not occupied with His interests here, and that according to His commandments. It is very simple. He loves and cherishes all His people; but He does not treat as a friend, by communicating His mind, anyone who is not truly and according to His mind in the place of testimony for Him here.

It is one thing to be cheered and comforted by Him, and quite another to be told by Him what He is doing. To be cheered by Him is wonderful and necessary; but what can be a greater favour than to be informed of His mind in a scene where everything is against Him? God says of Abraham, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?"

A friend will serve me to the utmost; but the one who makes me his friend confides in me, entrusts himself to me; so that the knowledge of his love for me increases as I grow into his purpose and ways. To the true witness He so makes known His mind that His way is clearly declared. However great the confusion and the labyrinth here, He gives the clue, the thread by which His witness can fully extricate himself, according to His mind, from every difficulty, and know surely that it is His mind. But no one obtains the thread but the one who is truly for Him here. And hence so many have a certain rest in Christ, and a knowledge of His love, who neither know His mind nor have power to impart it. The Lord in His mercy lead us into that devoted testimony where He may call us friends, and furnish us with this priceless thread, the knowledge of His own mind.