Authentic Friendship…

Authentic Friendship…

(from February 4, 2010)

What does it mean to really have an authentic friendship and to be the kind of friend that God wants us to be?

Not an easy question to answer…

I have had many friends over my life. Some of them have been very close – and others just mere acquaintances. All I have to do is to look at the number of “friends” I have here on Facebook. They are people that I have known from different stages of my life. Some close, some not.

How many do you have? With how many of them would you share the most intimate details of your life? How many of them would you trust with your life – to truly trust for them to take care of you?

Again, not easy questions to answer…

Here is my point. The title friend has lost it’s meaning. Due to the onset of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook the term friend no longer means what it used to.

Real friendship incorporates and requires accountability! With how many of your “friends” does that occur? My guess is not many.

We are told about one of the greatest stories of friendship ever to occur in 1 Samuel. Here we read about David and Jonathan. There is probably not another story in the Bible that speaks in such great detail about what a true, authentic friendship might look like.

Jonathan, the rightful heir to King Saul’s throne, knew God had chosen David as king. If there was ever an opportunity for selfishness or jealousy, this was the place. But Jonathan loved God and David, and was willing to risk not only his relationship with his father, but his very life for David’s.

That’s authentic friendship…

Now take a moment to go read John 15:9-17 and then answer this question again: What does it mean to really have an authentic friendship and to be the kind of friend that God wants us to be?

Here Christ declares His love for us, He commands us to love one another. We can have absolute confidence in Christ’s love for us. After all, He proved it by laying down His life for us!

Are you Christ’s friend? Is He yours?

Until next time…

Pastor Barry