Jesus: Friend or Acquaintance

Exodus 33:11, “¹¹ So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

John 15:12-17, “¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, that you love one another.”

Do you have this relationship with God? Do you desire to serve Him as you would your dearest oldest friend? I guess the reason I ask that question is because to really live a life blessed by God we must have a relationship with him that is more than casual. You know I was told by my dad when I was a kid that if I had six friends that would carry me to my grave I would have really done something in my life. True friendships are hard to find and even harder to maintain. Friendships are more than knowing someone’s name or how many kids they have or what their favorite color is. Facebook is a great example of the idea we have today about what friendship is all about. You can look up a person in a matter of minutes and in most cases find out more than you ever wanted to know about them and we call them our friend. The really kicker is I got to looking at my list of friends on Facebook and most of them I have either not seen or spoken to in the past 25 years. To top that off I did not really talk to them 25 years ago either. We have allowed our understanding of what a friend really is to change and in doing so have corrupted our ability to have a friendship type relationship with God.

 The scripture shows that God desires to be a friend to each of us through His son Jesus. We have been chosen by Jesus to share in the knowledge of God. He tells us that when we love one another as a friend we share the details of plans we make and understanding we have of situations with our friends. Love is the key to a true friendship as Christians many times we tell people we love them one second and curse them the next. The real harm in this comes when those outside the church hear us behaving in this manner. Even those living in the world know that true friends do not do this. I challenge you to examine your relationships today do you have close personal friendships or are you living a life with lots of acquaintances. I know a lot of people but when I really need something there are only a few people I will call and ask for help. How about you? Is Jesus an acquaintance or a true friend you can count on? Is he there when no one else seems to understand and you feel alone? I promise you it will be the best friendship you make with anyone because He is able to meet needs that no other can. Have a blessed day.