Friendship with God belongs to all who follow Jesus (John 15:12–17). If we trust in Christ, we are his friends and can know His thoughts more deeply the longer we walk with Him. Friendship with God belongs to all who follow Jesus (John 15:12–17). If we trust in Christ, we are his friends and can know his thoughts more deeply the longer we walk with him. 

As Matthew Henry reminds us, “Those who by faith live a life of communion with God cannot but know more of his mind than other people. They have a better insight than others into what is present, and a better foresight of what is to come.”

Divine grace establishes and completes this friendship. Our responsibility to that friendship is not thereby abolished. We are declared just through faith alone, but the sign that our faith is real is our devotion to Christ (James 2:14–26). John Calvin comments, “For although the grace of God alone begins and completes our salvation; yet, since by obeying the call of God, we fulfill our course, we are said, also in this manner, to obtain the salvation promised by God.”

Hear the words of Jesus in John 15:14–15: “You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.”

If you are in Christ, God is your friend, and, like any friend, he desires fellowship with you. Reflect on this truth and talk with him as you go about your day’s work.

Passages for Further Study

Ex. 33:11a 


Ps. 25:14 


Prov. 18:24 


Amos 3:7 


1 John 1:1–7

Devotion adapted from Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul.