Being a Friend of God
Let's start with a video...
Abraham was a friend of God. He was called to leave his family and his land to go to a land God would show him. God would make Abraham into a great nation. He would bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed Abraham.
2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23 declares that Abraham was called a friend of God.
Why?
Because Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible states - "...he was loved by God with an everlasting love, who showed acts of friendship to him; called him by his grace, and blessed him with spiritual blessings, and increased him with the increase of God; favoured him with near communion with him, honoured him with high characters, and distinguished him by peculiar marks of his favour, and reckoned his enemies and friends as his own; Genesis 12:8 and Abraham, on the other hand, loved God, and showed himself friendly to him; trusted in him, and believed every word of his; readily complied with his will, and not only yielded a cheerful obedience to his commands, but enjoined his children after him to observe them: this was a name which Abraham was well known by among the eastern nations...
The ESV Study Bible explains it this way: Abraham was called a friend of God, in contrast to those who have no acts of obedience to prove their claims to faith and are therefore seen to be friends of this world (James 4:4).
Now let's apply this friendship to our relationship with Jesus -
John 15:14-14
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
We, too, are God friend. Our faithfulness to him is a reflection of that friendship for we are obeying what he has commanded us to do. While we are not saved by works our works are a reflection of that faith (James 2:14-26).
Friendship with Feet
Encourage a friend today in their walk with Jesus. Maybe thank them for their faithfulness and acts of kindness.
Abraham was a friend of God. He was called to leave his family and his land to go to a land God would show him. God would make Abraham into a great nation. He would bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed Abraham.
2 Chronicles 20:7, Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23 declares that Abraham was called a friend of God.
Why?
Because Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible states - "...he was loved by God with an everlasting love, who showed acts of friendship to him; called him by his grace, and blessed him with spiritual blessings, and increased him with the increase of God; favoured him with near communion with him, honoured him with high characters, and distinguished him by peculiar marks of his favour, and reckoned his enemies and friends as his own; Genesis 12:8 and Abraham, on the other hand, loved God, and showed himself friendly to him; trusted in him, and believed every word of his; readily complied with his will, and not only yielded a cheerful obedience to his commands, but enjoined his children after him to observe them: this was a name which Abraham was well known by among the eastern nations...
The ESV Study Bible explains it this way: Abraham was called a friend of God, in contrast to those who have no acts of obedience to prove their claims to faith and are therefore seen to be friends of this world (James 4:4).
Now let's apply this friendship to our relationship with Jesus -
John 15:14-14
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
We, too, are God friend. Our faithfulness to him is a reflection of that friendship for we are obeying what he has commanded us to do. While we are not saved by works our works are a reflection of that faith (James 2:14-26).
Friendship with Feet
Encourage a friend today in their walk with Jesus. Maybe thank them for their faithfulness and acts of kindness.
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