Getting to Know Jesus by Name #24: Friend

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 

In the upper room, Jesus proclaimed to His disciples something they already knew to be true: He referred to them as friends.  It was not that they had  been such great friends, but that He had chosen them as such.  A Friend is: "one attached to another by affection or esteem."*  It's not just the way you feel about that person, but also how you choose to treat that person.  Jesus showed and told his followers how He felt about them: He told them important things His Father had told Him; He allowed them to do things with Him; ultimately, He laid down His life for them.  There is indeed no better friend than Jesus. 

*(Diann Cotton: 100 Days with Jesus)