One of the most popular TV series of the last 20 years was 'Friends'. Its popularity says a lot about the way we value friendship, even in a world where we continue to become more and more individualistic. Friendships are important to us.
Friendship is an important aspect of the way God has made us. We are social beings, created for deep relationships. Our friends play an influential role in determining who we are and what we’re like. And so, according to the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord, wisdom will mean taking care both in who we choose to be friends with and how we conduct ourselves in our friendships. In this Facebook generation we can have more friends than we could have imagined a generation ago, simply by linking up with people over the internet. In some ways, online forums like Facebook can redefine our concept of friendship. But is such a concept able to bear the weight of what a real-life friendship can?
Do we have a model for friendship to measure things like Facebook against? The book of Proverbs speaks about friendship in terms of love and faithfulness that goes even deeper than the love of blood brothers, and of genuine personal care for those we call our friends. But we all know that friends let us down, and that we let them down all to frequently.
But there is a faithful friend who loves us more than any blood relative can. He is faithful even when we fail him. He frankly confronts us to do us good by calling us out of sin and into life with him. And he showed us true friendship beyond anything we will see in this life when he laid down his life for us, who he now calls friends.
As the hymn goes, “What a friend we have in Jesus!”
In Christ’s love,
Paul
Friendship is an important aspect of the way God has made us. We are social beings, created for deep relationships. Our friends play an influential role in determining who we are and what we’re like. And so, according to the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord, wisdom will mean taking care both in who we choose to be friends with and how we conduct ourselves in our friendships. In this Facebook generation we can have more friends than we could have imagined a generation ago, simply by linking up with people over the internet. In some ways, online forums like Facebook can redefine our concept of friendship. But is such a concept able to bear the weight of what a real-life friendship can?
Do we have a model for friendship to measure things like Facebook against? The book of Proverbs speaks about friendship in terms of love and faithfulness that goes even deeper than the love of blood brothers, and of genuine personal care for those we call our friends. But we all know that friends let us down, and that we let them down all to frequently.
But there is a faithful friend who loves us more than any blood relative can. He is faithful even when we fail him. He frankly confronts us to do us good by calling us out of sin and into life with him. And he showed us true friendship beyond anything we will see in this life when he laid down his life for us, who he now calls friends.
As the hymn goes, “What a friend we have in Jesus!”
In Christ’s love,
Paul
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