What Kind of Friend Are You?


What Kind of Friend Are You?
Jim Howard

Few people enjoy being alone. Most want to have a friend or friends. To have friends one must be a friend. And yet according to Scripture, it is not enough to wear the title "friend." The term is too broad as to be very inclusive.

1. "But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab... " (2 Sam. 13:3). Jonadab was really anything but a friend. It was he who planted in Amnon's mind the idea of the dastardly deed which was to destroy him, namely the assault of his sister Tamar. True friends build up rather than destroy. They encourage righteousness rather than sin.

2. "Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil they made an appointment ... to console with him and comfort him" (Job 2: 11). Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar meant well. But theirs was the mistaken belief that theological dogma could salve a hurting heart. Not only was their theology inadequate, (They are reprimanded by God in Chapter 42) but they failed to share deeply enough the enormity of Job's pain.

3. "...a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34). Jesus provides the perfect model of friendship. Not only was he a loving presence to the friendless, not only did he share in human suffering (John 11:35), but most of all he demonstrated the selfless quality of his love by laying down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

What kind of friend are you?





Happiness cannot be directly pursued -- this is like trying to grab water with your hand. Happiness is a serendipity -- a product, a result. If you are not happy now, what would make you happy tomorrow? If you are not happy where you are, what place could produce happiness? The Apostle Paul was happy in a jail; Caesar was miserable on a throne!

Adapted from Biblecharts.org

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