Young Adults' Group

The Concept Of Friendship

by Pastor Mark
January 31, 2019

The Lord’s concept of friendship

For many of us, friendship is something that has been part of our lives since young. We have developed friendships with those from school and the work place over the years. Along the way, we have developed our own understanding of what friendship is all about.

We may have taken for granted that we understand what friendship is about. It is good for us to understand the concept of friendship from the Lord’s standpoint. As He related to His disciples, He spoke to them about the subject of friendship. He needed to define for them what His friendship with them was all about.

The friendship that the Lord gives

“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”  (John 15:14)

The word “friend” in Greek is “philos” which means “beloved”. The idea of friendship involves love…the love of a friend. It was indeed a real privilege for the disciples that the Lord offered them His friendship. But the Lord qualified this friendship further by giving a condition which is “if you do whatever I command you”. The disciples had been learning to keep His commandments as they followed Him. Therefore, they were considered His friends. Let us appreciate the Lord’s kind of friendship that is based on keeping His commandments.

A friendship that involves sacrifice

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

The Lord’s kind of friendship involves sacrifice. He taught that the greatest thing that someone could do for his friend was to lay down his life for him. That is the greatest kind of love that the Lord Himself would demonstrate for His disciples…His friends when He gave His life for them. Let us learn to lovingly sacrifice for the sake of a friend.

A friendship that shares

“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 15:15)

The disciples all along were seen as just servants of the Lord. But the Lord elevated the disciples from just having a servant–master relationship to being regarded as“friend”. Over the years that the Lord related with His disciples, there were many things that He shared with the disciples. He shared with them about His salvation plan and His kingdom. He also shared about His death and resurrection. Whatever it was that the Lord heard from His Father, He would share with His disciples. Let us appreciate this kind of friendship that seeks to share.

Following up on the Lord’s kind of friendship

The friendship between the Lord and His disciples demonstrated the kind of love that He had for them. It was based on His commandments. His love was one that was truly sacrificial. It was also a love that would reflect closeness through sharing things with each other…especially the Word of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus was deeply concerned for His disciples who were not able to relate to each other as well. They needed to learn to love each other as Christ had demonstrated. They needed to go beyond themselves to the kind of love that the Lord gave as friend. Let us be challenged to cultivate the kind of friendship with each other that can only be found in the Lord Jesus.

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