Scripture Reference: John 15:12-25

From Last Lesson: Jesus did have to die for us. He died to reveal the Father’s compassion, not to appease the Father’s love.

That may be the first thing we need to make perfectly clear. Christian concern for peace is not an optional hobby of some softhearted people. It is not the product of a debatable reading of the accuracy of the technical assumptions built into a military’s established scenarios for preparedness.

Concern for peace, whether Jewish or Christian, is part of the purpose of God for all eternity. God is by nature a reconciler, a maker of shalom. For us to participate in the peacemaking purposes of that kind of God is not just morality. It is not just politics. It is worship, doxology, praise.

There are more ways than one for a person to do the will of another person. Jesus distinguishes here between two levels of relationship:

“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” (John 15:13-15).

The disciples, then, did not just obey orders. The word here translated servant means more literally slave. Sometimes that term is used to describe Christian obedience to God as master. But here the difference is that a slave is one who does not know the master’s purpose. He knows what his own orders are, and obeys them, but does not know the complete plan. He does not know why obedience makes sense. So when Jesus says, “I have given you the title of friends,” he means that we are in on what it is all about. We know the battle plan behind our service. This is the major point I want to make in this lesson. Jesus has revealed to us, the Father’s will and plan for mankind.

The apostle Paul was saying something similar in his letter to the Ephesians, when he wrote about the divine mystery hidden through the ages but now revealed through the apostles and prophets. We have the privilege of being in on God’s purposes. We are not pawns sovereignly moved about on a cosmic chessboard. We are the players.

Now we can grasp more fully the weight of the statements with which we began. “The world will treat you as it is treating Me,” Jesus says. The peacemaking work of the believer, in conflict, in suffering, is a continuation of the work of Christ. The apostle Paul said of himself, “I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24).

John states in one of his letters:

“We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. . . . By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:12, 16).

Our teachers have often drawn the line separating salvation from obedience, dividing what Jesus did for us from what we are to do for Him. That line is real. It is appropriate for some valid religious and spiritual purposes. If the question were whether we can save ourselves, or whether God owes us some reward for our works, that line would matter. But that is not our question.

Our question is how we can honor God the peacemaker. Something we truly need to take time to meditate, contemplate and pray about is, how can we intelligibly participate in God’s purposes, as friends who are in on His battle plan? How can we knowingly and responsibly participate in His peacemaking project for the planet? It is something we truly need to consider as part of the Body of Christ.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.