Friendship is about love

Do you want good friends?

Do you want to be a good friend?

If the answer is yes to either or both of these questions, then look for love and be loving. You made read that and I think, are you asking me to have sex with my friends? I’m not talking about sex. Sex just makes friendships complicated and sex outside marriage brings no honor to God.  

No, I’m talking about sacrificial other person-centered love. A love that each of us who trust in Jesus Christ have received from him. Jesus says:

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

John 15:13

Jesus is our ultimate friend, and he has shown us ultimate love. He lay down his life for us. We deserved death and so he died in our place.  The love that our friend Jesus has shown to us, is the love Scripture calls us to show to our friends:

Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:11

This is heavy stuff. The way Jesus sacrificed himself for us, is the same way we must sacrifice ourselves for others. We must put the other ahead of ourselves again and again and again.

But, even though it is heavy it is also beautiful. When we show sacrificial other person-centred love then there is the potential that real and deep friendships will be built. When people feel valued and cared for then deep bonds of affection can be built up. When people feel heard and respected then deep bonds of trust can build up.

Jesus shaped love is the soil from which friendship grows.

p.s. Here is a wonderful song on the theme. Josh Garrels. What a Friend.