Friendship

The Bible says in Proverbs 18:24, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." This is an interesting scripture. In fact the whole subject of friendship is interesting. The obvious question that follows is "what is a friend?" In this post I want to explore that question a bit.

Facebook friends? Well Facebook friends can and do unfriend each other when they feel the occasion demands it. Maybe something is said on the side that offends one or the other. But, again the Bible says in Proverbs 17:17, "A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity." It seems that maybe our friend, Mark Zuckerberg has never read that particular verse of scripture and thus he put in Facebook the ability to unfriend someone. (I don't know if I have ever been unfriended on Facebook)
 
Again, (it seems so far that all the quotes are from the Book of Proverbs), in Proverbs 27:6 the Bible says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." It is, I believe, speaking of constructive criticism when it speaks of the faithfulness of the wounds of a friend. When we make a mistake, it is good to have a friend close by to correct you. Perhaps most people would ignore you, but then they probably don't know you personally.

Have you ever been in church and felt the preaching was making you uncomfortable? I have. In situations like that it is easy to say, "I don't like this church or preacher, I will find a church where I will be more comfortable." But beware, the Bible does say in the previously quoted verse, "...the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." If a preacher only says what you like to hear, there is another verse in the Bible that fits you. This one is not in Proverbs but in 2nd Timothy 4:3-4 and it says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables." This is part of the Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in which he said in verse 2, "Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." There is another old saying, "with friends like that, (that is preachers with itching ears) who needs enemies!"

Ah, "the wounds of a friend!" In our opening verse, Proverbs 18:24b, "...and there is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother," that friend can only be the Lord Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy 32:39, the Lord said through Moses, "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 to, "...fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." That is why the Bible admonishes us in Psalm 111:10 that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever." Oh Iknow that "perfect love casteth out fear," and "fear hath torment," (See 1st John 4:18) but for those who have come to love the Lord Jesus and His word,  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom..." I love Him but I fear Him also.

I fear to love this world, for the Bible says in 1st John 2:15, "Love not the world,  neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." I fear to not have the love of God in me. The Bible says in James 4:4,  "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." There is a more modern chorus that we use to sing in the Newberg Oregon church that said, "I am a friend of God..." I don't know how all the words go but this I do know that if I love the world and become it's friend, I will not be God's friend but rather His enemy. I want to be the Lord Jesus' friend. How about you?