Life’s twists and turns bring us in contact with so many different people, few of which we can honestly say are our true friends. True friends, the kind that would jump in front of a car for you, the kind that are there when you need them to be, and have the freedom to tell you things that you NEED to hear even when you don’t want to hear them are hard to come by.
Friendship is a selfish pursuit really–a mutual exchange of love motivated by the need to known. Jesus charged his disciples to love one another, using friendship as a way of defining love in saying that there is nothing greater than laying down your life for your friends. Who wouldn’t want friends like that?
Is that really selfish? Not if it’s mutual. If you find people that will love you with such selflessness, guess what? You’re going to in turn WANT to be the same kind of person for them. If we really love people as Jesus charged us to love people, by laying down our lives for them, imagine what kind of friends we will find ourselves with?
Jesus layed down his life for all who have and will believe and yet in his lifetime ended up with only 11 people that could be described as his true friends. Christ layed down his life for his disciples. They in turn layed down their lives for Him.
If even Jesus could be said to have 11 real friends in his lifetime, the ones he was speaking to in John 15, I consider myself lucky to be able to say I have even 3 (and you guys know who you are). Real friends are hard to come by, when you find them, be sure to show them the kind of love Christ modeled for us.
If you want better friends, start laying down your life out of love for people and you will have friends worth dying for.
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