Silly Sayings of Jesus : Now You Are My Friends

I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
John 15:15 (NLT)

Okay Jesus. So at first glance, this sounds kind of cool. You were telling your disciples that they got a status upgrade - promoted from your slaves, to your friends! Now I’m sure that being your slave was pretty cool and all, but seriously, who wouldn’t want to be in the Friend Zone with Jesus? Instead of slaving away to fulfill your whims and orders, they could hang out and be buddies instead. And, you're telling them the top-secret communications which you receive from your Sky Daddy!

Unfortunately, you kind of killed the moment, by saying this, just before you made the big announcement:

You are my friends if you do what I command.
John 15:14 (NLT)

Maybe you missed your calling and should have been a politician instead, because that is some seriously Orwellian terminology twisting! “Hey, guys, guess what? You’re now my friends… as long as you do exactly what I tell you.”

When I was growing up, I had a kid who lived next door, who was exactly like this. He was an only child, and was used to having the world revolve around him. Should have had a “Does not play well with others” label on his forehead. He was happy to be friends, as long as things went his way and I did what he said. But, when he didn’t get his way, he grabbed up his toys and went home. As an adult, I can look back and recognize it for what it was - self-centered manipulation masquerading as friendship.

The concept of friendship implies mutual respect, not control of one person by another.

So, whatever this is:

“If you love me, obey my commandments.”
John 14:15 (NLT)

It is NOT friendship. More like slavery with a ‘friendship’ label slapped on it.

Because it is impossible to substantiate the stories told by the anonymous writers of the gospels, we don’t know that this incident actually happened. We do know one thing though. If it did, and your disciples put up with this kind of treatment, then you found some pretty gullible suckers to follow you around.