Friendship
It is a wonderful thing that we can be friends with God. This is a great joy because God is the best friend. He is the most loving and most trustworthy friend. He is also the most faithful and most helpful friend. He understands us more than anyone else and works towards our good always. He was even willing to die for us which is what Jesus Christ did. Jesus declares to us that He is our friend and wants us to be His friends. He says to us in the Bible, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 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. 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.” (John 15 : 11-15). As our best friend God is always by our side and will never leave us nor desert us for Jesus says to us, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Obeying Jesus’ commandment to love one another makes us Jesus’s friends and we become better friends to others. Below is commentary on friendship, based on the Holy Bible, from two church leaders of different denominations. Of course, in following Jesus’ teaching and commandment above, friendship and fellowship is found between Christians at Church
Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church writes the following about friendship. He explains what makes a good friend and by the same token what makes us a good friend.
“Your true friend is the one who is sincere in his love. The one whose love does not have hypocrisy, pretence, artificiality or doubt. All his feelings are completely true and real.
A real friend is also a righteous person. The true friend is the one who helps you to attain purity of the heart, love God and strive for your eternity. As for the one who joins with you in committing sin, he is not a true friend; he is a partner in a life that is far from God. Therefore, there is a difference between a friend and a companion.The two qualities could be found sometimes in one person. But, a person might accompany you without becoming your friend. He is just a companion.
The true friend is the one who is trustworthy with your secrets. As St. John Chrysostom says, ‘Let your friends be a thousand, and he who keeps your secret, one of a thousand.’Your friend is your second heart; he feels what you feel. He deeply suffers for your suffering and deeply rejoices for your happiness. He is a stock of love and support especially at the time of need; he never deserts you. What a beautiful saying of wise Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes, ‘Two are better than one, for if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.’ (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). The one who does not lift you up could not be your friend.
Your friend is not the one who is courteous to you but the one who loves you. He is not the one who wins your content by agreeing with whatever you do, no matter how wrong it could be. Your friend is the one who truly loves you, wishes you good and saves you from yourself and, if necessary, saves you from your wrong thoughts. Therefore, the Bible says, ‘Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.’ (Proverbs 27:6).
Your friend does not treat you in a similar way, an inch for an inch. He tolerates you in your anger and shows long suffering when you err. His love does not change no matter how yours or his circumstances change.” Pope Shenouda III
The Holy Bible gives us much advice about the Christian value of friendship. For example we read in Proverbs the following verses regarding friendship:
“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)
“Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.” (Proverbs 27:9)
“As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:17)
In the video below, Timothy Keller of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church, explains the wisdom of these and other verses relating to the Christian value of friendship.