Yvonne Haggett

John 15:14
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015:12-14&version=31

This has special significance for me because it was the text taken by the Bishop of Bedford for his sermon at my Confirmation at Baldock, Hertfordshire, over fifty years ago.In the Authorised Version, which of course the Bishop used at that time, it reads: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." The New English Bible has "You are my friends, if you do what I command you."

Jesus said this to his disciples after supper in the upper room shortly before Judas Iscariot went out to betray him to the chief priests. In the two preceding verses, verses 12 and 13, Jesus explains that his chief commandment to his disciples is that they should love one another: there is, he says, no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.

Of course, he knew that he was about to be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice on the cross, so that all his friends might be saved. And I knew, as I came newly confirmed out of church, that I had a friend in Jesus, a friend who would never let me down.