Thought for Today
Exodus 33:11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
Proverbs 18:24 Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one's nearest kin.
Luke 7:34 the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'
John 11:11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."
Many of us learned from our mothers, “If you want to have a friend, you must be a friend.” It’s still good advice, many (many, many) years after I was first told that as a young boy. Few of us think too much about friends or friendship in terms of theology or worship; but, it is important to remember that even Jesus had friends. Jesus referred to Lazarus, Mary and Martha as friends. Jesus had disciples, followers, opponents but Jesus also had friends. We know that at least those specific friends were also followers; but, first and possibly foremost, they were friends.
The Bible refers to friends 50+ times. Friendship is mentioned at least 6 times. Proverbs 18:24 mentions both friends and friendship. By the time most of us reach adulthood, friends and friendship are important, significant aspects of our lives. Some of us, like me, are fortunate to have a particular best friend. A few of us who are especially fortunate are even married to our particular best friend.
An online search of the word friend might find something like “a person who you know well and who you like a lot, but who is usually not a member of your family.” (www.dictionary.cambridge.org) As I read that definition, the first question which came to mind is “Why?” Why do we like the people we like? Mutual interests? Mutual aspirations? Similar backgrounds? The answer may be yes to all or part of that, but is that the sum total of why we like the people we like? Most of us have heard the aphorism, “Opposites attract.” Sometimes they do, sometimes they repel.
Is friendship a matter of pheromones? Do we like someone because of our physiology? Is attraction chemical or biochemical? Yes? Maybe? Sometimes?
Christians should be familiar with Luke 10:27, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Many Christians have also, at some time, heard that the Greek language of the New Testament has several different words we translate as love. In that verse from Luke, the word used is ἀγαπάω. We sometimes transliterate that into English as agape (ah ghap a). The basic meaning of that Greek word is love; but, it is a love based on a conscious evaluation and choice, a deliberate matter of will and action.
That Greek word is important for Christians because it is the word most often used in the New Testament to describe the interpersonal relationships in the early Church. It describes, maybe even defines what it means to be a part of a family of faith. All Christendom is linked together into a worldwide family. That family exists as a result of conscious evaluation and choice, a deliberate matter of will and action. Even if we are born into Christian families, our joining the church and our worshipping in the church are conscious and deliberate actions we make personally and deliberately.
If, like me, you were once (long ago in a galaxy far away) a member of your church’s Children’s Choir, you are probably humming “Jesus Loves Me.” Even if you weren’t, you may well be singing, “Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong; they are weak, but he is strong.” He does still!
Does that mean that we are all best friends with everyone in our congregation? Obviously not. Does this mean that all of our friends must be Christians? Does it mean we can only have friends who believe exactly as we do? It does not mean any of that for me. I have friends who are not Christian. I have friends who are atheists or agnostics. I have many friends who are not part of the denominations I serve. I believe Jesus loves them all.
But I do feel a special friendship for those with whom I share my faith and with whom I worship. And, I do feel that ἀγαπάω love for all Christians throughout Christendom.
Stay safe, love, trust God,
Pastor Ray