….Friends are people you hang out with, people that you relate to, people that you enjoy being around, and that like for you to be around them. They are the ones you can talk to and trust. These are just a few descriptions of who a friend is to me and to you. We all need friends and in order to have friends we are friendly to other people, that’s how life works.
Friendship is one of the most basic needs in the life of every human being. God, who made us, put into us a need for friendship. Many times throughout the bible He (God) highlights and underscores the importance of friendship. We all want and need friends in order to fully enjoy life and on some occasions our friends even save our lives.
Now, to the point of my little story. We have to be carful about who we make our friends. Proverbs 22:24, tells us to not make a friendship with an angry man. James 4:4, says that friendship with the world is enmity (opposition, hatred) with God. Whoa! What do I mean? No friendship with the world? How do I function in life if I can’t have any non-christian friends?
Welcome to the life of a christian. As a christian, that is a person who has surrendered their life to Christ, we have the responsibility to pay attention to what we say and do in this life. Including, that we are obedient to God and that we love our neighbor and that we love our enemies. You see its not that we can’t be friends with people in the world, its that we can’t truly connect with people that do not have the love of Christ burning in their hearts in the same way as ours.
Amos 3:3, There is no way to have a true friend unless we agree. I’m not talking about ‘an agree to disagree friend’, a friend like that is more of a friendly and often respected acquaintance, than a friend. I’m talking about the people we hang out with and care about. Someone has to “give”, that is as a christian I have to agree with things that aren’t necessarily in line with what Jesus and the bible says to be right or my friend has to come into line with what Jesus say’s is right.
So, I leave you with this thought. We live in this world but this world doesn’t live in our hearts. What lives in our hearts is the love and the light of Christ, who died so that everyone could be free from the bondage of sin and death, that is in this world. So lets show Christ in our lives through our daily interactions. We will bring life and hope to those who want it in their lives.
Friends, we all have them. We all want them. Now lets make sure we are being true to the life of Christ inside of us, when we make them. It is necessary to go out into our daily lives and interact with people, lets not hide, instead lets show Christ, in every thing we do and say.