Only a Kiss by J. R. Miller. Greater love has no
one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. You
are my friends, if you do what I command. I have called you
friends. John 15, 13-15. The central fact in every true
Christian life is a personal friendship with Jesus. Men were
called to follow Him, to leave all and cleave to Him, to believe
on Him, to trust Him, to love Him, to obey Him, and the result
was the transformation of their lives into His own beauty. That which alone makes one a
Christian is being a friend of Jesus. Friendship transforms. We become like those with whom
we live in close, intimate relations. Life flows into life. Heart and
heart are knit together. Spirits blend, and the two friends
become one. We have but little to give to
Christ, yet it is a comfort to know that our friendship really
is precious to Him and gives Him joy, poor and meager, though
its best may be. But He has infinite blessings
to give to us. The friendship of Jesus includes
all other blessings for time and for eternity. If Christ is
our friend, All of life is made rich and beautiful to us. I have
called you friends. No other gift he gives to us
can equal in value the love and friendship of his heart. When
King Cyrus gave Artabathus, one of his courtiers, a gold cup,
he gave Chrysanthus, his favorite, only a kiss, and Artabathus said
to Cyrus, The gold cup you gave me was not so precious as the
kiss you gave Chrysanthus. No good man's money is ever worth
as much as his love. Certainly, the greatest honor
of this earth, greater than rank or station or wealth, is the
friendship of Jesus Christ. The stories of the friendships
of Jesus when he was on the earth need cause no one to sigh, I
wish that I had lived in those days when Jesus lived among men. that I might have been His friend
too, feeling the warmth of His love, my life enriched by contact
with His, and my spirit quickened by His love and grace. The friendships
of Jesus, whose stories we read in the New Testament, are only
patterns of friendships into which we may now enter, if we
are ready to consecrate our life to Him in faithfulness and love.