All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

The Lord’s call to us this year, as in every year, is not to promote or focus on ourselves, but on the needs of other Christians. He made this clear in His last extended discussion with His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. In this last message recorded in John 13-16, Jesus summed up all His requirements for them in three words – “love one another”. In the midst of explaining what this meant, He also assured them that obedience to this foundational commandment would prove that they love Him, and that they were His beloved friends and fruit-bearers.

As we begin the first weekend of the new year, and prepare to meet with our local assemblies on the Lord’s Day, let us remind ourselves of our main responsibility to each other, and what our faithfulness to it blesses us with. This is what Jesus said in the aforementioned passage:

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things 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 would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.”

(Jn. 13:12-17)

There are four main truths to be gleaned from this passage, showing us what Jesus requires of us, how He views us, how we know we’re His friends, and what the end result of our obedience is in our lives.

The main command is to love like He did

If we want to be like Jesus, then after fearing the Father like He did, we need to obey this fundamental command from Him, that we “love one another, just as I have loved you” (v. 12). Obviously, the most impossible part of this standard is that we love our fellow disciples just as Jesus loved His. Yet in telling us to do this, He was implying that we would have the ability to do so. In fact, the apostle John makes this certain when he writes in his first letter that,

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” – 1 Jn. 3:16

It’s clear that Jesus’s disciples saw this command as not just an ideal, but as a normal feature of obeying the Lord. And like John writes, Jesus goes on to define the ultimate way in which He loved the apostles:

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (v. 13)

So if we would obey Jesus’s second most important command (next to “Believe in God; believe also in Me”), then we must sacrifice our lives for the spiritual benefit of our brethren in Christ. Are you prepared to do this when you meet with your local fellowship on Sunday? And are you prepared to do this on any day? Every day, the Lord calls us to give up our lives, our rights, our comforts, and our resources to meet the spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And according to Jesus, this is true love for a friend.

Servants of Jesus are His friends

The second truth that the Lord discloses to His disciples is that their obedience to Him is part of what proves their friendship with Him. Isn’t that counterintuitive? Usually we think of friendship as being free of any authority structure, or obligation to submit to commands. Yet if you’re a friend of Jesus, and He’s yours, then you will obey Him.

This version of friendship extends further than our individual relationships with the Lord. The apostles, especially Paul, applied our submission to Jesus to our obligations to other servants of Jesus. That’s why he told the Ephesians,
“. . . be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” – Eph. 5:21

This means that as we all obey the Lord with fear together, we are to be willing to submit to each other’s instructions insofar as they’re consistent with Christ’s commands, and in alignment with the authority structures that He’s put in place. This mutual submission to each other is another expression of our love for the brethren. But our obedient friendship with Him has still another feature.

We’re His friends because He’s revealed the Father’s will to us

According to Jesus, what distinguishes us as His friends rather than mere slaves (though this is also true) is that He’s “made known to you” all that the Father revealed to Him (v. 15). In other words, we’re not only His subjects, but His partners in the work of His kingdom.

This is the very reason why He’s given us an extensive description of what He’s doing in the universe through the writings of Scripture. And not only does He give us rules to follow, but He persuades us of the goodness and excellence of obeying His rules. Further, He’s made known to us what the glorious eternal results will be of obeying Him! So we shouldn’t think of ourselves as miserable, burdened slaves, but as blessed and honored friends of the Lord of all.

And as Jesus’s friends, He’s given us honored access to the Father’s power and favor, simply because of His sovereign choice.

Jesus chose us to bear fruit, so God would answer our prayers

The next verse was spoken directly to the apostles, but the privileges they enjoyed still apply to all believers, as 1 John shows us. To end this lesson on love and friendship to His disciples, He promises them that He was the Person who chose them to be productive as His followers, so that their prayers in His name would be answered by the Father.

Jesus is explicit in verse 16 that the apostles did not choose to obey and worship Jesus, but that He chose them. This is a matter of cause and effect, since it’s obvious that they did choose to follow Him. It’s just that they did this only because He chose them. And for what purpose did He choose them?

“. . . that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain . . .”

The fruit He’s speaking of is that which He describes earlier in His discussion with them, where He declares,

“My Father is gloried by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” – Jn. 15:8

According to this, bearing fruit is the same as looking like a disciple, or follower, of Jesus. And looking like a follower of Jesus means imitating His lifestyle, and obeying His commands to love people into loving Him too. Thus, to bear fruit as a Christian means to be an obedient, loving, imitator of Jesus who is declaring the gospel to those who are yet fruitless.

And the Lord states the wonderful purpose of His disciples bearing fruit as the Father’s responsiveness to their prayers. If you have life-long fruit, then “whatever you ask of the Father in My name He [will] give to you” (v. 16).

The key to this promise is “in My name,” since God doesn’t answer just any request we make of Him. Yet if we ask Him for something by the authority and will of Jesus, then He’ll grant it to us (“in Jesus’s name”). This is to say the same as asking Him for things “according to His will”. John echoes this promise when he writes,

“This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us.” – 1 Jn. 5:14

And this hearing results in the reality that “we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (5:15).

So, as you seek to be a fruitful plant in God’s vineyard, and a faithful friend of Jesus, remember that His commandment is to love our brethren in God’s family as He did, by laying down our lives for them. And also remember that God has made His will known to us in spiritual wisdom and understanding, so we can please Him in all respects (Col. 1). And if we pray according to this will, then He’ll give us what we ask, even beyond what we can ask or think.

Remember our Lord:

“’This I command you, that you love one another.’” – Jn. 15:17

Further instruction in loving the brethren:

https://www.crossway.org/articles/3-ways-to-cultivate-community-in-your-church/