My Friend

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."
John 15: 12 - 16 NKJV

We have all had that one person in our lives whom we have honored with that one word...friend.  Yes, we may count our friends as many, but there is always one who we turn to in a time of need or a emergency.  Someone who is not only loyal and faithfull to the friendship we have developed, but one who will tell it to us straight if needed.  In the end, I want a friend who doesn't pull any punches when I seek his advice, I want the truth at all costs.  My friend Bill from my high school days was just such a person.  In the years since I left Minnesota for Oregon I have developed a few friendships with a few Godly men as well.  I've always found it quite the honor for someone to call me a friend, but with this title comes at least a bit of responsibility of our own.  Granted, I have damaged a few friendships with things I have done.  However, it was never done with bad intentions.  I guess we all have issues.  That responibility we all share in our friendships is that we keep them all close to our hearts.  There is indeed a solid line between aquaintences and those friendships of ours.  There are people I know, and then there are those whom I call friends.  There is indeed a difference.  I have those who I come across each day who I greet in passing that I do not consider to be friends, at least not yet.  My uncle once told me a story when I was younger of a close friend who he lost in Vietnam.  It was someone who he had connected with in basic training and that friendship carried over into the jungles of southeast Asia, until a vietcong bullet took his freind from him.  Now, this was just one of the deaths from his time in Vietnam, but even at my young age I could tell that it affected my uncle alot.  I've never had a freind who has given his life for me.  I can't begin to imagine the emotional toll of such an act of selflessness.

9Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. 10For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. 11Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? 12Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9 - 12 NKJV

I look at my scriptures and I almost always see pairs.  When Noah led the animals of Gods creation into the ark, they were two by two.  When God created man in His very image, it wasn't long before He declared that "It is not good that man be alone."{Genesis 2:18}  You will notice that upon our heavenly Fathers creation of Eve, that the intention wasn't for a servant for Adam.  No, it is God who declared of His new creation "I will make a helper comparable to him" {Genesis 2:18}.  Gods true intent was never for the husband to rule over his wife, but that both would be complete as one.  I have heard many a couple who have described their spouse as being their best friend.  I couldn't think of a better description.  The best of friends, the closest of companions and the strongest of unions.  There is one, however, who has called me friend who will never let me down.  He is the man Christ Jesus.  Jesus tells us in John 15 that a man will know no greater love than to give His life for His friends {John 15:13}.  This is exactly what Jesus has done for us.  Not only has He called us friends, but He has given Himself that we, His friends, might live {John 15:15}.  It is Jesus Himself who became sin on our behalf that we would no longer be defined by our old sin nature {2 Corinthians 5:21}.  How many friends do we know who would willingly lay down their own lives that we, their friend, might live?  In my lifetime I have known but one...and He is Christ.  Not only is He my Lord and savior...but He has called me His friend.

6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV

~Scott~