You never know how sometimes the simplest of ideas will catch fire in your brain. I was reading John Smulo‘s live blogpost from the “Off the Map” conference and came across this quote:
He started to see people in difficult circumstances as his friends, rather than just people to “reach out” to.
Wow. I want to keep letting that soak in. I’ve been on outreach. I’ve even been on outreach to the poorest of the poor. But I’m not sure I made my focus one of being a friend. I did make some friends, but I didn’t always make that my focus. Now that I think about it, though, I think that is a powerful sentiment. So, here are some thoughts that came to mind because of that one sentence.
1. We all yearn for God’s friendship and intimacy. Job, in the midst of his despair, cries out:
“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness! Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me . . . .”
Job 29:2-5
2. When we become God’s child, we also become His friend.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15
3. When we become God’s child, we are called to become Jesus’ representative here on earth to show others how to be reconciled to the Father through Jesus.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
4. We are given a new commandment – to love one another (John 13:34)- and we know that a friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17:17.
5. We are called to love and to defend the rights of the poor and needy. Ecclesiastes 4:10 tells us “if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” And isn’t it interesting how God speaks to Shallum, the unrighteous son of the good King Josiah about his father:
“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.
Here the Lord God describes knowing Him as defending the cause of the poor and needy!! If you aren’t familiar with that, ponder it a while!
6. If God becomes our friend, and we become His representative on earth, then we are called to become friends to those who need more of Him. Here are a couple of thoughts Jesus left us with:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:13-14.
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12-14
7. We are all called to go and make disciples of the lost, the poor, the needy, the sinner. Jesus did this by discipling his friends and was known as a friend of sinners. He called those to whom he ministered, even those the average religious Jew would never associate with, his friends.
Reaching out may imply that the greater is reaching out to the lesser. Going as a friend demonstrates love and equality; the only distinction been us and the lost is that we are reconciled to God and we want them to be, too! Even Jesus didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped; instead, he took on human clothes and made himself a servant. Philippians 2:5-11.
We are called to follow Jesus and take on his attitude. He didn’t just reach out. He lived, he loved, he befriended, he met needs, he became a servant, and he became a friend. God has become our friend. Let’s represent Jesus well, advancing the Kingdom by being a friend to all who need a friend and serving those who need to know Him. Don’t just reach out; be a friend.
