Friendship نموونە

Friends of Saints

Jesus was a friend of sinners, but He was also a friend of saints. In the book of John, He called his disciples his friends. They had obeyed Him, and He taught them about God.  

Obedience brings greater friendship with God. If you obey Jesus, you are going to walk with Him in intimacy and friendship. You and I have the ability to be friends of Jesus. You get to be His friend and your obedience, your walking with Him in the ways that He commands, actually deepens your friendship with God. I have been walking with the Lord for about 31 years now, and I want you to know that Jesus is my best friend. I have grown in that friendship and that relationship with Him in good times, in bad times, in up times, and in down times. His friendship means more to me than any other friendship on earth. He’s my friend. But the intimacy of my friendship with Him grows by my obedience to what He says.

The proximity with God, if you’re a believer in Christ, never changes. The Holy Spirit lives in your heart. God is not way over there, and you are way over here. Nevertheless, the intimacy in your relationship with God can change. That intimacy is based on our being followers of Christ instead of running away from Christ. 

Jesus was a friend of saints; Jesus was a friend of sinners. For both, we sacrifice, share, befriend, connect, and love. Which one do you need more of in your life? Are you surrounded by friends who do not walk with God? Or do you have so many friends from church that you do not have one lost friend you can reach for Christ? Have you gotten so cloistered that it is just you?

I came to Christ when I was 16 years old. I didn’t know anyone who went to church. Everybody I knew was partying. I had my fill of sinners. Then I started to discover some saints. In college, I had a perfect balance. However, when I went to seminary, I went way over in the saint category. Since I am in ministry, I have many saint friends, and I love them all, but I have to work on having friends outside of the church because my vocation has sheltered me. I’m praying for a sinner friend struggling with a certain sin. I want to minister to them. 

Are you in a place where you need more friends who already have a relationship with God, or are you in a place where you need to intentionally reach out to more people who do not have a relationship with God? We need to be around both types of people to be able to walk as Christ did.