Friendship

Carl Witty

Jesus was a master at friendship. He did not condescend to His disciples; He called them friends. In John 15:11-15 Jesus spoke to His friends, the twelve disciples, and revealed the basis of their (and our) friendship with Him: “… Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you…”

With all of warnings of bad friendship such as Job & his three friends, Ammon & Jonadad, and Herod (Matthew 14: 1-12), do we even dare to cultivate friendships?

The answer is yes! The Bible gives us abundant examples of the power of friendship to make our lives better.

“Avoid isolation” — Realize that cultivating true friendships require time and setting priorities. Proverbs 18:24: “A man who has friends must show himself friendly.”
“Build more windows and fewer walls” — Two passages seem to me to advocate our need for self-disclosure. James 5:16 — “confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,” and Proverbs 27:17 — “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Everyone needs at least one friend to whom he can tell everything. Openness draws others to us; secretiveness keeps others at a distance.
“Express your feelings and affection for others” — There is a place for putting feelings into words. Proverbs, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”

Our most wonderful and precious friendship is with Jesus. The promise to the disciples (John 15) is also ours. What a friend we have in Jesus! James G. Small expressed the joy of having Jesus as our friend in his song:

I’ve Found a Friend

I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever