Tag Archives: discipleship

May I be a friend of Jesus Christ without doing what He says?

In my morning reading from a collage of Scriptures, I read this:

Ye are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command you.
John 15:14

But then, in the next verse, Jesus says…

Henceforth I call you not servants;
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends.
John 15:15

How am I not a servant if I do whatever the Lord tells me to do?

Then again, how can I be the Lord’s friend if I don’t do what He says?

Servant or friend, I don’t deserve any kind of good relationship with the Almighty.

(These were the last and first verses in what I read this morning: Daily Light on the Daily Path.)

For direction in life and full peace, put your hope in God. Keep Him in your mind and acknowledge Him in all your ways. Recognize His nearness.

A verse that has gripped my thinking in the last year is Proverbs 3:6 — “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

In all I do, I want to keep God in mind. I want to remember Him, near. I want to acknowledge His presence.

I still don’t do well at that, but I do do better.

Well, in my reading this morning, I came to Isaiah 26:3 (which reminded me of the above verse) — “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”

Keeping my mind stayed (ie, focused, fixed, zeroed in) on God must be the same as acknowledging Him in all my ways.

Then I came to Psalm 62:5 — “My soul, wait thou only upon God.”

For direction in life (see Proverbs 3:6) and full peace (see Isaiah 26:3), wait on (that is, put your hope in) God. You know, keep Him in your mind and acknowledge Him in all your ways!

Well, when I think of Proverbs 3:6, I also think of Romans 1:28, which addresses its opposite condition — “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” Continue reading →