Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13 (NKJV)
Jesus knows us as His friends.
He calls us not servants but His friends. John 15:15 (NKJV) No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You don’t have to be or do anything to make God be your friend. God has already shown and proven He is a friend to all of us on the Cross. Romans 5:10a (GNT) We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son.
Now God desires you to accept and reciprocate His friendship. He desires you to live friendly with Him. He desires you to treat Him as your friend just the way he also does.
You show yourself friendly to God by doing what He tells you.
John 15:14 (NKJV) You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
God’s command or what He tells us to do is not hard – it’s to believe in and respond to His friendship which He has shown us through His Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 3:23 (GNT) What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us.
It’s also to show the same friendship to others, even the unfriendly.