Friends in Faith
From the Mecca of Mormonism
This is HOTM
Where we are learning to live the life of Christianity in this the Age of Fulfillment.
And I’m your host Shawn McCraney.
Show 13s Fleeing and Faithful Friends
Taped Sunday December 27th 2020
Aired Monday December 28th 2020
Abandonment in Scripture
When it comes to the faith there are some topics right on the tip of our tongues – faith, bible reading, second coming, the crucifixion. I want to talk about a really important topic tonight that is often overlooked in the faith – friends.
The Bible does present several characters who were abandoned by their family and friends – and I think that any sold out seeker of truth will experience the same in the course of their lifetime. We read of
Job
David
Jeremiah
Paul
and of course, Jesus.
In Job 19:13-17 we read:
“He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine acquaintance verily are estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed. And my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwelt in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger, I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, Though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body.”
Several times we read how the Psalmist was forsaken by his friends in the time of calamity.
Psalm 38:11 says, My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
As a prophecy of Judas toward Christ, Psalm 41:9 says
“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
And Psalm 55:12 bitterly addresses the hurt of friends turning on us, saying:
12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
Of course, speaking prophetically of the Savior, Zechariah 13:6 reads:
“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
Friends of Jesus
In John 16:32, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”
And having eaten their last meal Jesus said to the disciples beginning at Mark 14:27:
27 All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
28 But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.
29 But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.
30 And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.
31 But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.
And outside the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was surrounded and it was evident that he was going to be taken, we read in Matthew 26:56
“But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.”
The Value of True Friendship
While the texts are there about friendships, we don’t speak much of the value of a real true friend in the faith. Interestingly, genuine friendship is a vital component of being a Christian. In John 15:12-15 Jesus Himself said to his disciples:
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
What is interesting about these words is Jesus first says:
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
This was a common sentiment.
Real Friendship in Ancient Philosophy
Theme of real friends anciently. In the Symposium, Plato writes, “Only those who love wish to die for others.”
We don’t think much about dying for our friends today. Instead, we tend to think of what they do for us, not what we will do for them. But for a Christian, and the important idea of friendship, the idea of dying for another is more than manifest. We sacrifice for our friends; in love, we reach out and help them, which is tantamount to dying to our own lives. Death to self on behalf of a friend is a really important element of true friendship.
The Role of Frank Speech
But there was another element to true friends anciently that is often ignored and goes unrewarded today when expressed – the willingness to tell a friend the truth or what the Greeks called, parresia, which means, “frank speech.” We see frank speech and true friendship illustrated by animals in nature when danger lurks and they let out a warning cry that only the animal of its species understands. It’s from one of their kind, and it is given to warn the friend of incoming danger. The ancients saw the lack of such frank speech as a lack of nobility and unfriendliness.
So, you have a friend who puts on a very very very unflattering outfit. A true friend will take them aside and say so – a false friend will flatter them and allow them to suffer the shame and embarrassment – the danger – of what is headed their way in the jungle. According to the Hellenistic philosophers, to be someone’s friend was to speak frankly and honestly to them and to hold nothing back. Interestingly, after Jesus says that the greatest love is for a man to lay down his life for his friends, adds: “I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Jesus as the Ultimate Friend
In what? “In frank speech.” And here’s the truth about Jesus through the Holy Spirit – He has laid down his life for you AND as the Truth, he will ALWAYS speak frankly to you – because He is the ultimate friend a human being can have. This is understood, I think. What is not so understood is that as Christians who follow Christ our Lord, we are to embrace the very same approaches to our friends. Laying down our lives for them (for greater love has no man than this) and included in this is providing them, “frank speech.”
Both actions are based in love – both, therefore ought to be done in love, with love. We aren’t often presented with literal opportunities to lay down our lives for our friends today, but the principle remains the same. Real friends love you (in action) more than others who love you with words. Words are nice, actions are everything. Additionally, to be a real friend, and to experience a real friend, is to have frank speech with them. Direct, love-based speech – which can lend to pain and even an end to a friendship in some cases when people do not understand that it’s a form of love.
We are not talking about speech that is frank on every subject under the sun or those topics that are based in mere opinion. We are talking about calling things as they are when it comes to seeing a friend going into a situation where they might get hurt, ruined, or destroyed. I am all about freedom. Liberty and letting people do what they choose to do or say. But I am simultaneously all about speaking the truth, no matter what the cost, when a friend is headed into something dangerous to them. Jesus does and did it for us – the idea is we then seek to do and be this for others.
No matter the cost.
Write your comments below – we will read them next week, here on Heart of the Matter!
