Our Dearest Friend

"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." (1)

I Call You Friends

One friendship is a marketplace,
Where love's measured by give and take.
Behind each façade, there's a face --
What is the truth and what is fake?

Another friendship, built on sand,
With feelings and frivolity,
Falls swiftly when trials demand
A love raised on reality.

The friendship that our Lord imparts --
A sacrifice of self for all --
Outpours His mercy on our hearts
When we humbly accept His call.

For His friendship implants His love
Into hearts He claims as His own.
Merciful love's drawn from above;
The greatest love that man has known!

May we bear His love in our place;
Drawing on His friendship of grace.

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1.John 15:12-15