You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
According to an article in Psychology Today, there are seven types of friendships:
Lifelong Friends
Best Friends
Close Friends
Social Group Friends (friends you socialize with but with whom you are not particularly close)
Activity Friends (friends with whom you engage in specific activities, such as “gym buddies,” members of your book club or dinner club, church circles, and so on)
Friends of Convenience (the folks with whom you might share carpooling duties, youth sports team parents, neighborhood groups, and so on)
Acquaintance Friends (people at work, people you see each day when you’re walking your dog, folks you know to speak to, but not about anything of consequence or especially personal)*
In this article, counselor and professor Suzanne Degges-White states, “The number of acquaintance friends we have is positively correlated with our level of life satisfaction, but the number of lifelong friends, best friends and close friends we have are the strongest predictors of overall contentment with life.”
Her words cause me to pause to consider three questions: 1) what kind of friends do I have? 2) what kind of friend am I to others? 3) What kind of friend am I to Jesus?
The first two questions are very important, and lead to other important questions, but I don’t think it takes much convincing to suggest that the third question is worth focusing on today.
John 15:14-15 tells us that Jesus sees His disciples as friends. If we are a disciple of Jesus, if we obey His commands, we are His friend; He shares what He’s up to with us.
Jesus is an amazing friend. His love for us is such that He died for us. His effort to know us and be there for us for the entirety of eternity places Jesus somewhere in the “lifelong friend” and “best friend” categories. But what about us? What kind of friend are you and I to Jesus?
Too often we read about Jesus, we hear about Jesus, we ask questions like “what would Jesus do?” but are we a friend to Jesus?
Are we mere acquaintances of Jesus so that we say hello when we pass by? Are we friends of convenience such that we know Jesus just because it’s convenient to have eternity secured in Heaven? Are we activity friends where we talk to Jesus once in a while because we engage in a social activity called “church?” Do we socialize with Jesus, but hide our hearts from Him? Is being close to Him enough for us?
Regarding how we answer this question and according to Suzanne Degges-White, lifelong contentment is on the line.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to become a best friend of Jesus. Perhaps the invitation to you to become lifelong friends is just waiting for you to say yes. Maybe Jesus has a friendship for you that allows you to know what He is saying and doing. Perhaps your friendship with God is waiting for you to do what He commands.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 218–221, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 9:9) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lifetime-connections/202111/the-7-types-friends-and-which-is-most-essential-our-happiness