Trust and friendship
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15: 13)
Jesus said to his disciples: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other." (John 15, 12-17)
Through His Incarnation Jesus shared our human nature (except in sin), including our common suffering and death. God has thus become a friend to accompany us and is someone upon whom we can rely. The awareness of this infinite love God has for us and the cost it had for Jesus, who died on the cross, should be reason enough for us to show our unconditional and grateful trust and friendship in God. Yet, do we really believe this?
