06/23/2021
Who are our friends? Who do we associate with every day? We are told to love our neighbors, and our enemies, and we should, but most of these are not believers in God, and Jesus. So if they are not believers should we just love them… or are we to make them our friends and companions as well? How about making them our close friends, or a BFF (Best Friend Forever)? If this bothers you, would it make a difference if these unbelievers who don’t follow Jesus were law abiding citizens of good moral value? What does scripture tell us about who our friends should be?
“I am a friend to anyone who fears you— anyone who obeys your commandments.”
Psalms 119:63 NLT
So we are told to love our neighbors and enemies, and we are commanded to forgive the debts of others like God forgives us, but if we really know love then we will be willing to lay down our lives for our friends… but who are our friends? The friends of God and Jesus obey Them, and both David, and Jesus, convey this same thought. So our friends should be congenial, trustworthy, follow God, Jesus Christ, and seek to do the same righteous things we strive to do. Listen to Jesus…
“You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
John 15:14 ESV
This scripture of obedience is reaffirmed when we read that our friends should not be fools, but rather, they should obey God. Today we use the word fool to mean unwise, unintelligent, or silly, but in the Bible it defines someone who doesn’t believe in God… well, then again, perhaps the modern definition and the biblical one have more in common than it first seems… listen…
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Proverbs 13:20 ESV
So a fool is first and foremost an unbeliever, and our friends should not be fools…
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.”
Psalm 14:1 ESV
There is a single word that separates those we call friends from those we are told to love. We are told to love everyone, but we “choose” our friends. God chose Abraham to be His friend, and if we believe in God, and we also believe God, then we too can be counted among God’s friends…
“and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.”
James 2:23 ESV
We are told to choose our friends wisely. I’ll bet that you just thought that this was advice your parents gave you when they didn’t approve of someone you were associating with, but it is deeply scriptural, and knowingly or not, they were giving you biblical advice…
“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.”
Proverbs 22:24-25 ESV
So we are meant to love everyone, to love them enough to bring the gospel message to them just as God loved the world enough to send Jesus to redeem us, and we are meant to love our unbelieving neighbors, and even our enemies who seek to harm us, but we are also told to go a step further, snd befriend believers. We are meant to choose them out of the world to be trusted, and to be our companions as we travel the journey of faith. Does this help us answer the question we were originally asked… “Who are our friends?”
Knowing these things that scripture tells us about friends, who are we calling our friends, and are we mistakenly referring to casual acquaintances, or worldly companions, as our friends? We love them, but are some of our family members, and maybe even our spouses, truly our friends?
“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Proverbs 18:24 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the love you have for us, and the depth of that love which drove you to send your Son Jesus Christ to sacrifice Himself so that we could be redeemed. Thank you for that selfsame love which prepared us to become righteous, to obey you, and to be called your friends. Thank you for showing us who our friends truly are, and for teaching us how we are meant to be good friends to other believers. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God, and our friend. Praised be your name for calling us friend, and allowing us to be friends of Jesus. Wonderful are you whose Word has shown us our friends in this world, so that we can have worthy companions, and travelers, as we walk our way of faith. Merciful are you who befriends us, and calls us your own, and loving are you who extends the hand of friendship to everyone in the world, as you ask them to believe in you and Jesus, and to obey your commands. Your grace abounds Father, and your love covers us all. Teach us now through Abraham what it means to not only be loved, but to be chosen your friend. Wash us in the blood of Jesus as we kneel before you as believers, seeking righteousness, love, and friendship. Find us worthy Lord to be chosen, called your children, and your friends, for all eternity… those for whom your Son has laid down His life, and demonstrated the greatest love of a friend.
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
John 15:12-17 ESV
Rich Forbes