Jesus said “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.”
What a difference between a servant and a friend. We can be friends of Jesus. He has offered us that privilege, but it comes with a responsibility. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” This is not such an easy thing. Abiding in Jesus’ love marks us as different to the world, and so the world will hate us. But we have further encouragement from Jesus, “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”