What Is a Friend For? Part Two
John 15: 12 – 19
Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends…” Thus, He paid us a supreme compliment. The word “friend” in English, as in its Greek equivalent “philos,” conveys the idea of loving and being loved. There is something warm and pleasant about it.
The secret of success in one’s search for friends is found in the wisdom of Solomon who wrote: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly” (Proverbs 18:24). An unknown poet expressed it:
“I went out to find a friend,
But could not find one there,
Then I went out to be a friend,
And there were friends everywhere!”
An English publication ran a contest seeking the best definition of a friend. The winner was: “A friend — the one who walks in when the world walks out.”
Jesus perfected the art of friendship; and after patterning it, passed it on to His followers. By example and expression He answered the question: “What is a friend?”
However, laying down your life involves more than looking into the gray face of death. There is a principle of slow sacrifice folded into the words of the Saviour.
It is as hard at duty’s call,
To lay one’s life down day by day,
As to lay it down once for all.
Friendship motivates one to daily help another.
It means to make joy possible for those who walk in the shadow of sorrow.
It is to make goodness possible for those who stand in the darkness of temptation.
Illustrative of this are mothers who are laying down their lives daily bit-by-bit for their children.
It is to venture into the world day by day to minister and not be ministered unto. It is to let the message of your music become the harmony of your life.
Now read this little poem again and in light of it go out and show yourself as a friend to those around you. You will find there are many in need of your friendship.
“I went out to find a friend,
But could not find one there,
Then I went out to be a friend,
And there were friends everywhere!”
What Is a Friend For? Part One
“Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel” (Proverbs 27: 9).
Jesus said, “You are my friends…” He didn’t say “I am your friend.” For me to say “Jesus is my friend” is to pull Him down to my level. For Him to speak of us as His friends is for Him to pick up to His level.
James 3:23 “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.”
Obedience evidences friendship. George Whitfield was asked: “Do you ever tire of your work for God?” He replied, “Sometimes I tire in it, but never of it.”
Epicetus said: “I am free and the friend of God, because I obey Him willingly.”
No one can grow weary in well-doing who lives in the light of a friendship that transforms all duty into delights.
We are challenged to be friends. Jesus said, “I have called you friends” (Vs. 15). This was a term used in kingly courts and in the Roman Empire. The confidants of the king were called “friends of the king.” They could see Him at any time. They ranked in importance above even his generals.
We are not sterile slaves who must cower in His presence. We are not members of the remote crowd which must strain to see Him. We are His friends. Every time you pray you are blessed to be entering the King’s court. Think of that.
Inherent in the meaning of the word “friend” is the meaning “partner.” A slave was defined as “a living tool.” We are His partners in His task. That means if we are doing His will He is a partner with us in doing. You can hear the word “part” in “partner.” You can count on Him to always do His part and in doing so He helps us do our part.
A call to serve Him is a call to joy. Joy is inherent in obedience to His will. “…My joy remains in you, and that your joy may be full.” A gloomy Christian is a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron. How can a person fail to be joyous while walking in His will?” (Vs. 11).
As a child I remember my dad painting our back porch. As it grew late, I passed and he said, “Son, get that other brush and help me so we can finish before dark.” I still remember the pride, the sheer joy of being a fellow-worker with my father. That is what Jesus wants of us.
Eternity
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God” John 1:1, 2.
That can literally be translated, “Before time began to begin.” This the Bible confirms time as a part of creation along with matter.
The Bible also teaches “…that there should be time no longer…” Revelation 10: 6. Means there will be an occasion when there should be no more time.
The one factor that is not a variable is eternity, where there is no time. The very word “eternity” teaches there will be a never ending state. Eternity is but a breath away.
Werner von Braus, the German who is the father of our rocket science program made this observation.
“In this modern world of ours many people seem to think that science has somehow made such religious ideas as immortality untimely or old fashioned. I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation, the human soul?”
If people believed in an eternal state into which they could be thrust without a moment’s time they would be more inclined to prepare for it. Even more, if they believed there were two and only two alternatives of this state of being they would likely think through the alternatives: 1) two and only two states, 2) you can be thrust into one of the two alternate states in which they would exist “forever” without warning.
What would you consider the most important decision you will ever make?
The Pensées (1669–70; “Thoughts” of Blaise Pascal focuses on a matter needing the attention and response of everyone. He wrote:
“The state of death is eternal …[and] how absurd it is for people to go through life without regard for their final destiny… From all this I conclude that I ought to spend every day of my life seeking to know my fate.
We are so caught up with the affairs of this life we give little attention to eternity. Most people are living for today with barely a thought of eternity.
In death we move from a sphere where there is time to one where there is no time. There are two regions in this sphere: heaven and hell. God’s grace is at its zenith in that He allows you to decide in which you will spend eternity.
“They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them,” said Augustine.
An aside question relates to how old will babies be in heaven, and not only they, but all people. Eternity is a timeless sphere and hence all heavenly bodies will be ageless. Our new body will indeed be new chronologically and in composition. That is just one of the many miracles we are unequipped to fully answer.
Randy Alcorn put this into perspective: “He who lays up treasures on earth spends his life backing away from his treasures. To him, death is loss. He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to eternity; he’s moving daily toward his treasures. To him, death is gain. He who spends his life moving toward his treasures has reason to rejoice. Are you despairing or rejoicing?”
There is only one of two answers regarding resting your eternal destiny in Jesus Christ. They are “yes” or “no.” “Later” is a no because of the “X Factor Death.”
Trust Jesus as your Savior and dedicate your life to living according to His word.
God Created
Genesis 1:1 opens “In the beginning God…” It continues with the second wonder: “…God created…”
Both foundational truths are disputed, but remain stalwart facts. The second truth is a set of fingerprints supporting the first. Creation is obviously here and had a beginning, a source. That source is the omnipotent God.
Verner von Braun, the father of our missile program, a renowned scientist, opined, “Although I know of no reference to Christ ever commenting on scientific work, I do know that He said, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ Thus I am certain that were He among us today, Christ would encourage scientific research as modern man’s most noble striving to comprehend and admire His Father’s handiwork. The universe as revealed through scientific inquiry is the living witness that God has indeed been at work.”
The Hebrew word for create” is “bara”– meaning “to create something new”. What He created is described in Psalm 19: 1, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Look around and marvel.
A description of the “you” is described by Bill Bryson in his book “In A Short History of Nearly Everything.”
“No one really knows, but there may be as many as a million types of protein in the human body, and each one is a little miracle. By all the laws of probability proteins shouldn’t exist. To make a protein you need to assemble amino acids…in a particular order, in much the same way that you assemble letters in a particular order to spell a word. [For example, to make collagen,] you need to arrange 1,055 amino acids in precisely the right sequence….
The chances of a 1,055-sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are, frankly, nil. It just isn’t going to happen. To grasp what a long shot its existence is, visualize a standard Las Vegas slot machine but broadened greatly – to about ninety feet, to be precise – to accommodate 1,055 spinning wheels instead of the usual three or four, and with twenty symbols on each wheel (one for each common amino acid). How long would you have to pull the handle before all 1,055 symbols came up in the right order? Effectively forever. Even if you reduced the number of spinning wheels to two hundred, which is actually a more typical number of amino acids for a protein, the odds against all two hundred coming up in a prescribed sequence are 1 in 10260 (that is 1 followed by 260 zeros). That in itself is a larger number than all the atoms in the universe.
Yet we are talking about several hundred thousand types of protein, perhaps a million, each unique and each, as far as we know, vital to the maintenance of a sound and happy you.”
God did all of that and more in an indirect way of saying, “Here I Am.”
Jesus then came to make not only the existence, but to demonstrate the fact that He loves you and awaits your positive response to His love for you.
Divided We Fall
There is a sinister movement at play In America. Perpetrators fall into two categories. Some have admirable intentions thinking they are helping our nation. Many good, sincere, innocent persons with good intent have bought in. To use current descriptive speech, they have drunk the Kool Aid. Thinking they are working to save the world they are carrying out the design of the evil originators.
Others are deviously dedicated to divide us. They know the intended result and are knowingly working to achieve its design. To fulfill their intent it has to be done under the guise or helping society. The principal proponents of the movement are selling their cause behind such a cause. That is the reason innocent persons with a good intent bought into it.
The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory was an assemblage of social scientists and researchers in Germany focused on the application of Marxism to philosophy and society. The Frankfurt School was founded in 1923 as part of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Being forced out of Europe they found a congenial home in Ivy League Schools in America. (Getting the picture).
Critical Theory provides a specific interpretation of Marxist philosophy with regards to some of its central economic and political notions like a critique of mass culture. Their objective is to transform religion, family life, education, politics, technology, and entertainment as it has formerly been known.
Movements to achieve the transformation are identity politics, critical race, white privilege, DEI, multiculturalism, and others under the WOKE umbrella. Those terms are even used in some churches. This is most often because the sinister purpose is not known. It is basically to divide.
Black minister Cory Brooks of the South Side of Chicago, said these efforts have done nothing to help Blacks. He and others recommend as an alternative teaching character, morals, virtue, a sense of personal responsibility and accountability, and a striving for personal excellence. Merit resulting thereby enables a person to achieve their best and accomplish their optimum.
Most people may know some likable smart people involved in one of these movements. I would not impugn their motive, nor would I disclaim their divisive result. Their intent might be noble, but the result is not.
The objective is to divide us. Marx did it to conquer Russia. He turned the bourgeoisie, who owned and hoarded wealth and resources, against the proletariat, the laborers. The proletariat eventually destroy the bourgeoisie and provided the basis for Communism.
The divisions are not so well defined in America and our large middle class mitigates the mix. Racial differences proved to be a dividing line in America and is being used as such. There is an effort to divide us as the oppressed and oppressors.
One reason for hatred of Jews is they are unfairly represented as being oppressors. This improper premise has long been held in Europe and has led to much egregious persecution of Jews.
Unrest and protest on Ivy League campuses is a result of the long held philosophy brought to our shores by the Frankfurt School of thought. It is highly ingrained in many schools.
There is more of this canard in our communities than most people realize. It is the dividing force it was tactically designed to be. We must search for things that unite us.
United we stand. Divided we fall. Division would form a fertile basis for Communism.