A Son or a Slave? - Pt 1

[Jesus said] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12-17 ESV).

There are two very important words in our reading today. The first of those is “servants” (v. 15a). The Greek word is doulos. While the ESV translates it as “servants,” a better translation in our modern use of the words would be “slave.” It describes someone who has been taken into bondage, either with or without their consent. They are completely subservient to another, without choice or compensation. The second word is translated “friends” (v. 15b). This is an accurate translation of the Greek word, phileos. It speaks of that warm, unbreakable tie of familial relationship. It is the deep love of a brother. It can only come from one who is related by being a legitimate member of the same family with the same father. The statement of Jesus is clear. We are also sons and daughters of God just as He is. We are His brothers and sisters, not slaves. I find it incredible in our day that this truth is so often misunderstood or ignored. Over the next few days we will be looking at this principle of behaving like a Son rather than a slave. The first step in not living like a slave but like a son of God is to stop saying mistaken, slave-like things about our Father. One of the marks of a slave is that we act like we live way out on the edge of the plantation in the slave quarters, where nobody knows what the master’s plans are. When you don’t know what the master’s plans are, how he does his business, you can easily say false things about him. One of the first marks of a son, or a friend, is that we know him. We’re brought into his councils. We see how he works. We see how he makes his decisions. We see what he’s up to. We begin to understand his ways and how he goes about running the world. We stop saying things about him that are not true. Just one of those expressions comes in the midst of the pain that often occurs in our lives. Please hear my heart today. I say this out of love. We need to lose the thoughts and words used when we say things like, “I often struggle with knowing in my heart that no good work can ever be enough to please God.” That sounds like we are saying no good work can ever be enough to please God. That is slave talk; that’s not son talk. We are not the prodigal goat, or the prodigal servant; we are the Father’s sons!