Jesus, as the Bible clearly reveals, is the very Son of God. While on earth, Jesus existed as God in human form.

What does it mean to be a friend of God?

To be called a friend of God means to be in good graces with God. Jesus said that He had delivered truth and understanding to His disciples (John 15:15), and they had not only accepted it but fully embraced it. They embodied what the prophet Amos taught: “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3).

The apostles and disciples were prepared and committed to obey and do what Jesus taught them. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you,” He told them (John 15:14). And Jesus had commanded obedience to God’s laws. Indeed, we have seen that He is the One who had given the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament.

The patriarch Abraham was called God’s friend (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41)—a friendship James 2:22-24 says came because Abraham’s faith produced righteous works of obedience (see also Genesis 26:5).

Jesus told His disciples that a distinguishing and visible sign of their friendship with Him would be how they kept what He summarized as a “new commandment”: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

This strongly reflects what Jesus declared was the greatest commandment: “The first of all the commandments is . . . you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31; quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).

So, in Jesus’ own words, we are to first love God with everything we have, then we are to follow on with love for each other. These great commandments are further spelled out in the Ten Commandments, with love fulfilling God’s law (see Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 5:3).

It might sound easy, but it’s not. Tragically, we all fail—to one degree or another—every day (1 John 1:8). But being a friend of God, being in the good graces of God, opens the door for God to shower us with grace, with forgiveness, with restoration, with redemption, with reconciliation (1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1-2). God our Father wants to lavish us with gifts! (Luke 11:13). He knows our physical needs and through His grace supplies them (Luke 12:22-34). When we stumble, God lifts us through His personal and loving intervention the Bible calls grace.