“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” (Jn. 15:15).

The Lord says He proposes to keep back nothing from you. That shows that He has a great deal of confidence in us! But it is so natural to think that He only tolerates us when we believe in Jesus. By forcing Himself to do so He can bear our ways a little longer, if by any means we can make ourselves good enough so that He can like us well enough to have confidence in us.

And Satan is so ready to talk to us like that.

But the Lord does not want us to hesitate and doubt as to our standing before Him. He says: “When you have believed in Me, you are accepted in Me. I do not propose to tolerate you merely to try to get along with you. I propose to put confidence in you as in a friend, and take you into the councils of My will, and give you a part in all the affairs of the inheritance.”

I have people say that they are thankful for the confidence they had in the Lord. I have no objection to that, but I do not think it is a very great accomplishment, or worthy of any very great commendation that I should have confidence in the Lord, considering who I am and who He is.

But it is an astonishment that He should have confidence in me! That is where the wonder comes. You know that is the last point that a human being can reach in confidence and friendship that the family secrets should be laid open to him. Yet that is the way the Lord treats the believer in Jesus.

The Lord does not take us upon suspicion, nor does He merely tolerate us. He says, “Come on to me.” You are accepted in the Beloved. Come into the house; sit down at the table, and eat. You are henceforth one of the family.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, 397, 398