“A man that has friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
I have been humming the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” all morning. You remember: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief’s to bear, what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.” I figured that if that tune was on my mind and I couldn’t get it off that God wanted me to write an article about our friend Jesus. The text that I chose is from the Old Testament, but it is one of the best descriptions of the friendship of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus did, indeed,“show Himself friendly”, and He is a “friend that sticks closer than a brother.” This is what I see in the New Testament when I read about Jesus, and what I have experienced with Him in my life. .What does it mean to have a friend in Jesus? Proverbs 17:17 describes what it means to have Jesus as a friend: “A friend loves at all times, and br brother is born for adversity." Let’s take a look at “a friend loves at all times.” Paul addressed this in Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That reads an awful lot like “a friend loves at all times.” There is not a person on earth that Jesus does not love, for He died for all that “none should perish.” In His life, death and resurrection, Jesus befriended all people. He longs to have a relationship with all people. Of course, He doesn’t have a relationship with all people, because many people reject Him. But their rejection is not Jesus’ fault. The fact that Jesus loves at all times means that He loves us, and befriends at all of the times of our lives. He is with us when we are going through smooth-sailing. When we rejoice, Jesus rejoices with us. Jesus is also with us, befriending us, when we are going through difficult times as well. Just because we are not “winning” does not mean that Jesus has stopped caring. He is especially with us when we are going through difficult times. I can attest to this, and I imagine that many of you reading this can attest to the same thing. Look at the second part of Proverbs 17:17: “And a brother is born for adversity.” This means that a real friend will not forsake us when things are not going our way. Jesus is as much our friend in adverse times as He is in the good times. When we are suffering for any reason, we must not assume that Jesus does not care, for He was born, lived, died, arose and ascended in order to be with us in adversity. Christians have to face all of the exigencies of life like everybody else. We can just rejoice that we have a friend that “sticks closer than a brother” at those times. Is Jesus a friend to those who have not put their faith in Him? I think that He is, or will be, but friendship has to work both ways. Proverbs 18:24 informed us that, “a man that has friends must show himself friendly.” Jesus has shown Himself friendly to all humanity, but all humanity has not claimed His friendship. Understand this, Jesus is willing to embrace and save anyone who will come to Him by faith. Think of the thief on the cross. He was really a bad character, but when he saw Jesus for who He really was, he reached out to Jesus and ended up in paradise. Though the thief was a vile sinner, Jesus did not reject him. The world has a friend in Jesus, for He died on the cross for all people. Christian, rejoice today that you have a friend in Jesus, who will not forsake you no matter what is going on in your life. For those who haven’t claimed that friendship, claim it now. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|