Devotional 5-4-18

JOHN 15: 9-17

YOU ARE MY FRIENDS….

I would imagine most of us know enough about Facebook to understand that using it is most commonly to help us keep in touch with friends. Someone asks you to be their friend and you accept; or you ask someone to be their friend and they accept.  You have gained the privilege of posting messages which they may read, and vice versa. Personally, I check Facebook perhaps twice a week, and reading through the posts, I can further communicate with my friends by clicking one of several little icons. You can like the comments or pictures, love them, laugh at their humor, show your utter surprise, indicate your sadness or your anger—quite a good selection, don’t you think?

I don’t do much clicking unless the comment or picture makes quite an impression on me. The ones I use most often are simply that I like it (thumbs up!)  or am quite moved by it in some way and I love it (red heart!).  

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus often addresses the disciples and sometimes others in the crowds that follow him as “my friends….” In the above passage, he says, “You are my friends if you do what I command. 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.”

If the above scripture reading were a post from Jesus on Facebook, what other response could I possibly have given than to click the little red heart?  His post is wonderful news!

 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

As we yearn to be part of the Body of Christ, let us reach out to others—even to those we may not know well, call them our friends, obey God’s commands, and click the little red heart.

It’s not so easy as clicking the little red heart on Facebook.  But—perhaps it could become so, if we did it as often as we do on Facebook! 

Diane Feaganes