Quotes about friendship are everywhere – embroidered on
pillows, painted on cute little wall plaques, on thousands of refrigerator
magnets and bookmarks, and all over Facebook.
Relationships and friendships are a big part
of our lives. Whether you have many
friends or just a few, we all know at least a few people and friendship and
relationships are one of the biggest parts of our experience of life
everyday. In some way, whether big or
small, every person we interact with has an impact on our life and we have an
impact on his or hers. Some of the most
important relationships we can have – and the ones that can be most life
changing are those with other brothers and sisters in Christ. When I talk about friendship in the rest of
this article, I am referring to friendships with other believers in Jesus,
particularly our sisters in Christ. Other relationships are very important, but these
are the friendships we will focus on here.
Because of the gospel, you and I can be genuine, real, and
honest in our friendships. You may have heard the saying “everything is level
at the foot of the Cross.” This means
that every believer comes to Jesus exactly the same way – with absolutely nothing
to give to Christ to help earn or deserve salvation. (Ephesians 2:8-9) In fact, if you are a believer you came to the
Cross as an enemy of God because of your sin.
(Romans 5:8, 10) All that we have in Jesus – salvation, righteousness,
and sanctification – is because of His grace.
(Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 2:13) This is something that is very helpful for us
to remember as we interact with other believers. We do not need to pretend to be better than
we actually are because we have all been recipients of the same wonderful grace
of Jesus. We can be real, genuine, and
transparent because we have both received the same undeserved love from
Jesus. This will also help us to be
patient with the ways that He is still working in the lives of our friends – we
can “bear all things” (as we are told to do in 1 Corinthians 13) and forgive (as
we are told to do in Matthew 18:21-35) because we know the love, grace, and
forgiveness of Jesus in our own lives.
It is also for this reason that we can be faithful to speak
the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15) Jesus has blessed us with the gift of
friendships and it is so important that we use them to build one another up
(Romans 14:19) and bear one another’s burdens. (Galatians
6:2) It is wonderful to have fun (even
silly!) times together as friends, but it is so precious to have those times when
we can encourage and bless one another using the Truth of Bible. This may mean that we share a verse with a
friend who we know is struggling with discouragement or suffering of some kind.
It might mean that we pray for and with
our friend. It may mean that we lovingly
remind our friend of what the Bible instructs and encourage them as they apply
that instruction to their life.
Sometimes it just means listening to a friend and crying or laughing
with them. (Romans 12:15)
I have a dear friend and our friendship is just like
this. I don’t see her terribly often but
when I do, we have such wonderful times of fellowship sharing the Truths of
Jesus with each other and catching up on life!
We can be totally honest about where we are struggling (for example, I
recently told her that I was having a tough time just living daily in the promises
of the Bible I know are true and trusting Jesus) and the things Jesus is
showing us through His word and how He is encouraging us to grow. When we aren’t together, we like to send
little messages with prayer requests, Bible verses, or just “I’m thinking of
you” notes. We pray for each other and
encourage each other to daily seek and walk with Jesus.
No one is meant to live the Christian life alone and it is a
treasure to share the journey of following Jesus with precious friends. They help us keep walking in the right path,
and can be the strength and support we need during tough times. But, remember, life-changing meaningful
friendships are not possible without Jesus.
We must first know Him as our savior and have experienced His grace in
our own lives. It is also very important
to remember
That is a longing that can be filled only by Jesus Himself. (John 6:35) It is so important and good to have human
relationships built on Christ, but people (even believers) are still human and will
fail us in some way or another. Through
the gospel, Jesus gives us power to forgive when that happens, and offers
Himself alone to be the perfect friend who will never ever fail. (Hebrews 13:5, 1 Corinthians 1:9, Psalm 9:10)
that no friend, no matter how much they love Jesus and point us to
Him, can ultimately make us happy or satisfied.
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