When I was in high school I started hanging out with a ministry called Young Life. One of the leaders was a college student named Brian. I did not realize it at the time, but evidently every time I said hi to him I would punch him in the arm and every time I talked to him I would brag about my football achievements. As you can imagine, I was probably a pretty annoying and draining guy to hang around. Looking back, one thing amazes me…Brian never abandoned me. Even though Brian probably had plenty of college friends to hang out with and even though I was a bothersome, insecure, big-headed high school kid, Brian still befriended me, still pursued me and still loved me.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to preach from Philippians 1:1-11. If you can recall, we learned that at the cross our heavenly Father forsook His perfect friendship with His Son Jesus, so that we could once again be made friends with God. I would like to think a little deeper on this issue with two questions.
1) Why did God have to forsake His friendship with Jesus? The Bible tells us that God’s standard for friendship with anyone is their perfect obedience to His Word. Needless to say, we have all failed at this, especially in the area of friendship. If you are like me, your selfishness has kept you from being a good friend to ‘difficult’ and/or ‘unbeneficial’ people. It is so much easier to care for people that encourage you or that somehow assistance you in achieving your goals. God had to forsake Jesus because Jesus took on our selfishness and he took on our friendlessness. Not only that, because of us, Jesus then incurred the most horrible punishment ever, separation from the Father.
2) Why should we persevere in one sided friendships (like Brian did)? In Philippians 1:6 Paul says that he is “confident of this, that (God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Paul was confident that the Holy God of the Universe, who forsook His most treasured possession to unilaterally begin a friendship with us, would also unilaterally perfect this friendship in us. That He would not only befriend selfish, friendless, difficult and unbeneficial people, but He would also never give up on selfish, friendless, difficult and unbeneficial people. The reason why Brian persevered in friendship with me, was because he understood that God had persevered in friendship with him.
So here is the challenge. Befriend and persevere with a stubborn, exhausting and difficult person, not because it is what God commands, but because it is what God did and is doing with you.
