Ecclesiastes 4: 9 - 12 NKJV
One of our discussions this week was led to a subject which many of us are well familiar with. This being the topic of broken friendships. A few stories were told in our group of how a few christian friendships had been forsaken once one of the parties had left a certain church. Although I didn't share my experiences, I've had more than a few friendships I've developed in the church which for one reason or another have become long forgotten. It is Ecclesiastes 4 in which we are told of the very value of friendships. For friends are often there if we should fail or fall. I admit that a few of my closest friendships are those which I developed while attending church. However, there are also remains that pain of those freindships which have been severed simply because I left that congregation. In a sense, it seems that I have become a bit gun shy of creating friendships for fear that they too will eventually fall by the wayside. Of course, this fear is more than likely in error, but the pain of the past indeed remains. There is no doubt that friendships are one of lifes benefits. For without them we would certainly be a society of hermits. Scripture is filled with examples of people coming together in friendship. I believe that there is a purpose to this, for our Lord most assuredly wishes for us to be in strong relationships with others as we also dwell in our relationship with Him.
9“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15“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. 16“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17“These things I command you, that you love one another.
John 15: 9 - 17 NKJV
How blessed are we that our Lord Jesus would call us his friend? Of course, Jesus also called us to love one another as well. How many of us can attest that we have shown the love of Christ Jesus to those we meet outside of church? Not me. It would seem for me that entering into a new friendship would be akin to going off to war. For those wounds of the past are still with me. Friends who seemed at the time to have shown me the love of Christ. Friends who promised to stand beside me. Most of them are gone now. Of course, more than a few friends remain and I am blessed with these relationships. So, how is it that one who has been so wounded by christians find it within himself to trust once again? Well, if we look at it through the eyes of the world, it is almost impossible. For the world will tell us that we must show an "Eye for an eye" and steadfastly refuse those who have wronged us. However, Christ Jesus who is in us calls on his friends to love one another. Which of these calls will we heed? All too often it seems that the right path, the path walked by Jesus, is also the most difficult to follow. However, it is that path walked daily by Christ Jesus is the very footsteps in which we walk.
~Scott~
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