PROLOGUE
Have you ever heard of a king announcing to his subjects that he will no longer treat them as his servants? Instead, if they are willing, he will take them into his confidence as trusted friends. The monarch wants it clearly understood that he has no desire for the blind, unthinking obedience of a slave. He much prefers intelligent cooperation, freely given. And to make this possible, he offers to keep his people well informed about the workings of his government.
The Bible records that Jesus made just such an incredible offer to his disciples before he returned to heaven to resume his full kingly power. John was with Jesus when he made this offer, and he recorded it in his Gospel—in the fifteenth chapter and the fifteenth verse. “I call you no longer my servants,” Jesus said, “for servants simply do what they’re told. I call you rather my friends, for I want you to understand.”
The one the Bible describes as “King of kings and Lord of lords” prefers to regard us not as servants, but as friends. To me, this is the best of all the good news that we call the Gospel. Think of what this implies about the kind of person God must be and what it would be like to live with such a God for eternity.
During almost fifty years of college and university Bible teaching, it has been my greatest pleasure to conduct a year-long course that involves reading through each of the sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments.1 The purpose is to learn how to view the Bible as a whole and to see how all its parts relate to the one supreme, central subject—the truth about God himself.
As I look back over 135 such trips through all sixty-six, there is one passage that stands out ever more clearly as revealing the most important truth about God—a key to understanding the rest of Scripture and God’s plan to restore peace in his universe. It is this offer of friendship recorded in John 15:15.
The purpose of Servants or Friends? is to consider the far-reaching and, to some believers, highly desirable implications of God’s clearly stated preference for something more than just submissive service—the freedom of understanding friendship.
1. The “Sixty-six” include the 39 books of the Old Testament which are recognized by most Christians and Jews, and the 27 books of the New Testament accepted by most Christians.
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