Practice: Multiply 9.4 - May 23, 2010

Practice #9 – Multiply
9.4 – Biblical Definition of a Friend

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."                    - 

C.S. Lewis

What is Friendship?

1.    Friends are Present – Even in the Hard Times.Judges 11:29-38 (New International Version)
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.” “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.
 
Romans 12:15 (New International Version)
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

2.    Friends are Loyal – Even when it Costs Them.
Proverbs 17:17 (New International Version)
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 19:6 (New International Version)
Many curry favor with a ruler, 
and everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts.

Matthew 5:46-48 (New International Version)
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

James 1:27 (New International Version)
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

3.    Friends are Authentic and Transparent – To Bring Out God’s Best for Both of You.Hebrews 3:12-13 (New International Version)
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.