SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2016 9:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Friends of Jesus Know
Divine Truth
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 15:15
Message of the verses: “"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.”
Remember
that I mentioned slaves in a previous SD as we began to talk about the verses
in this section (John 15:12-16). Now I
want to quote from this first paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary on
this verse to help us better understand about slaves.
“The term ‘slaves’
did not have many of the negative connotations in Jewish culture that it does
today. In fact some of the most noble
figures in the Old Testament were described as slaves (Heb. Ebed) of God, including Moses (Num.
12:7), Caleb (Num. 14:24), Joshua (Joshua
2 4:29), Job (Job 1:8), David (2 Sam. 7:5), Isaiah (Isa. 20:3), and even
the Messiah (Isa. 42:1). In the New
Testament Paul (Rom. 1:1) similarly called themselves slaves (doulos) of Jesus Christ. The term reflected their utter submission to
and dependence on their heavenly Master. This word, doulos,
and the related verb douleuo, always
and only refer to slavery. Doulos is the
corresponding word to kurios
(lord). Jesus is Lord, believers are His
slaves. Doulos is, however usually translated ‘servant,’ or ‘bond-servant.’ But their nearly 150 uses in the New
Testament are to be understood as references to slavery. A slave bought, owned, subjected to, provided
for, and protected by his master (kurios). He lived in total submission to the will of
his master.” I hope this paragraph takes
some of the mystery from the word slave, as we who live in the Western world
have the wrong idea of what a slave was because of how they were treated, but
as mentioned in an earlier SD we are slaves of Christ, as He takes care of us.
Now during
this time of slaves in the Jewish and then Roman world the slaves did not
really know what their master was going to do as they had little reason to tell
them what their plans were unless they had to know because they may have been
involved in with their master.
So we as
believers of Jesus Christ are not only slaves of Christ, but we are His friends
which is a more exalted title that being a disciple. We read in the OT that Moses was a friend of
God, and that was a privilege, and we too, as believers in Jesus Christ are His
friends. John MacArthur quotes William
Barclay as he writes about the great honor believers have in being the friends
of Jesus Christ:
“This
phrase is lit up by a custom practiced at the courts both of the Roman emperors
and of kings in the Middle East. At these
courts, there was a very selected group called the friends of the emperor.
At all times, they had access to the king; they even had the right to
come to his bedchamber at the beginning of the day. He talked to them before he talked to his
generals, his rulers and his statesmen.
The friends of the king were those who had the closet and the most
intimate connection with him.”
As we look
at this paragraph we can understand that it is this kind of intimate access
that Jesus graciously grants to His friends.
With that said we will look at the rest of this section in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: This section has given me a better
understanding of my relationship that I have with my Savior and Lord. Do I deserve this? Now but this is what He has given me and for
that I am blessed.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to see me
through this day of helping to take care of our grandchildren as I am not
feeling that well and will need extra strength.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “A woman of Samaria” (John 4:6-7).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said, ‘See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized’?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/23/2016 9:51 AM
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