Friend-ish By Kelly NeedhamSample

If God is our stability and Jesus our closest companion, and if friendship with him is our source of significance and he is supposed to be “our everything,” then is it the case that we just don’t need anything from our friends? The answer: of course not! When God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” he wasn’t only referring to marriage (Gen. 2:18). There are no lone rangers in God’s kingdom. Being able to live isolated and without community is not a sign of health but of pride. If God says we need other people, then it is humble and wise to embrace that need and seek to have it met. The question is not if we need people. We certainly need something from our friends, but it isn’t what the world says we need. What we need are companions who will fight for our ultimate good: nearness to Christ. So, then, how does that play out in friendship? What do we really need from one another? There are four distinct ways our friends meet our needs and continue to bolster our love for Christ: 1\. Friends to deepen our joy in Christ. 2\. Friends to battle with us. 3\. Friends to carry us in our weakness. 4\. Friends to be there for us. With a list like this, it’s worth saying that seeking friends who can handle these needs will naturally make us look for people who already know and treasure Jesus. Of course, we can and should have non-Christian friends, but it is good for those in our closest circles to share our love for Jesus. Proverbs 13:20 reminds of us that we should be discerning about who we let into our inner circle, saying, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”