It sounds like a question we might ask when approaching an unfamiliar dog we want to pet, but it could be a “secret” of true Christianity.
This “secret” reveals itself in three important areas. 1) From the beginning God has demonstrated friendship toward man. This becomes clear as we use the definition of friend from www.merriam-webster.com, “one attached to another by affection or esteem.”
2) Friendship is how God has established His greatest principles for life.
3)The Christian’s hope is full and eternal friendship with God.
God’s Word is replete with examples of God demonstrating His attachment through love to mankind. In creation, man was made to be a friend to God. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” It was recognized that it was not good that man should be all alone (Genesis 2:18), because man was created for relationships.
The Lord would speak to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Abraham had the distinction of being called a friend of God (James 2:23) Jesus even calls all the world his friends, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
The God who would be our friend, established the greatest principles of life around being friendly. Jesus noted the two greatest commands of God were about friendship while answering a lawyer, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 English Standard Version, ESV)
Jesus Our Lord would use friendship to describe His commandment, “12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:12-14, ESV) Jesus is clear that his disciples would be known by being friendly, “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, ESV)
The hope of a Christian is Heaven. But what is it about heaven that makes one desire to be there? Is it the streets of Gold or Pearly gates? Is it the lack of pain or tears? Is it eternal nature of our existence there? No, the hope of the Christian is that one day we will be in perfect friendship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
As Jesus talks to His disciples in John 14:1-14 about their hope, we recognize his focus. Jesus depicts His Father’s house v2, that Jesus is the only way to get to the Father v6, and closes by informing them that He was going to the Father v12. In this passage we see a truth that is revealed throughout the New Testament. Our hope is to be with the Father. We may call it heaven, but it is that friendship with God which makes our eternal existence possible, joyous, and heavenly.
Brandon Jackson is minister at Hatt Hill Church of Christ.
