what is TRUE FRIENDSHIP
True friendship involves relationship. Many people say,
"Oh, he/she's a good friend of mine,"
yet they never take time to spend time with that "good friend."
Friendship takes time: time to get to know each other,
time to build shared memories, time to invest in each other's growth.
Trust is essential to true friendship.
We all need someone with whom we can share our lives, thoughts, feelings, and frustrations.
We need to be able to share our deepest secrets with someone,
without worrying that those secrets will end up on the Internet the next day!
Failing to be trustworthy with those intimate secrets can destroy a friendship in a hurry.
Faithfulness and loyalty are key to true friendship.
Without them, we often feel betrayed, left out, and lonely.
In true friendship, there is no backbiting, no negative thoughts, and no turning away.
True friendship requires certain accountability factors.
Real friends encourage one another and forgive one another where there has been an offense.
Genuine friendship supports during times of struggle.
Friends are dependable. In true friendship, unconditional love develops.
We love our friends no matter what and we always want the best for our friends.
Real friendship looks at the heart, not just the "packaging."
Genuine friendship loves for love's sake, not just for what it can get in return.
True friendship is both challenging and exciting.
It risks, it overlooks faults, and it loves unconditionally,
but it also involves being truthful, even though it may hurt.
Genuine friendship, also called "agape" love, comes from the Lord.
The Lord Jesus calls us His friends and He laid down His life for us (John 15).
Relationships in real life involve different levels of friendships, and that's okay.
But humans are designed by God for lasting relationships.
Often our isolationist society offers only vague, empty relationships.
God wants us to have friends here on earth. Most of all, He wants us to be friends with Him!
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the definition of a true friend:
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that
I learned from my Father I have made known to you" John 15 : 13 - 15.
Jesus is the pure example of a true friend, for He laid down His life for His "friends."
What is more, anyone may become His friend by trusting in
Him as his personal savior, being born again and receiving new life in Him.
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" (Proverbs 17:17).
"A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24).
The issue here is that in order have a friend, one must be a friend.
"Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses" (Proverbs 27:6).
" As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3 ).
Friends are of like mind. The truth that comes from all of this is a
friendship is a relationship that is entered into by individuals,
and it is only as good or as close as those individuals choose to make it.
Someone has said that if you can count your true friends on the fingers of one hand,
you are blessed. A friend is one whom you can be yourself with and never fear
that he or she will judge you. A friend is someone that you can confide in with complete trust.
A friend is someone you respect and that respects you,
not based upon worthiness but based upon a likeness of mind.
Finally, the real definition of a true friend :
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us" (Romans 5:7-8).
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." (John 15:13).
Now, that is true friendship!
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