Who is Jesus to you?

Is he a teacher, a saviour, or a shepherd? Surely all of those things. But what about a friend?

In John 15:15 Jesus says this to his disciples: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Wow, friends—with Jesus!

I was recently reminded of this when I interviewed John Vissers, the Principal of Knox College in Toronto, for my podcast. (See link below.) He spoke with sincerity and eloquence about his own friendship with Jesus, and how we too can think of our relationship with him in that way.

And there’s more. One of the ways we nurture our friendship with Jesus is to nurture friendships with other Christians.

Dr. Vissers says: “I think God has given us friendship in Christ as one of the most powerful ways to understand the heart of the Christian faith…” God isn’t some distant deity who is uninterested in our daily, run-of-the-mill lives. He comes to us personally in Jesus, and we journey personally with one another as we journey alongside him.

Do you proactively nurture friendships with others who share your faith?

When we do this, not only do we give and receive support and wisdom, but we laugh, build trust, and journey with those who have our best interests at heart.

“I think God has given us friendship in Christ as one of the most powerful ways to understand the heart of the Christian faith…”

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Notes:

–“Nurturing friendships with others Christians—and with Jesus – a talk with John Vissers.” That’s the name of the podcast. You might want to grab a tea or coffee for this one. I really enjoyed John’s sincere and insightful perspective. You can subscribe to ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ on iTunes (Apple Podcasts), Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or TuneIn, or you can simply listen in here.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.