Friends

Links to A couple of videos to cause you to think about the world’s view of friendship

Friendship with god

James 4:4 NIV
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Friendship can cause you to take sides.
DISCUSSION: Examples of moral stands you have had to take that separate you from the world.

Luke 21:12-16 NIV
“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. [13] And so you will bear testimony to me. [14] But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. [15] For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. [16] You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.
DISCUSSION: Moral stands that have come between you and family.

James 2:23 NIV
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
A friend of God must believe. Fiends believe in their friends.
Isaiah 41:8 NIV
“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,
DISCUSSION: How has faith in God and standing on his Word distanced you from others.

Friends with one another

Acts 24:23 NIV
He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.
Friends show up when you have a need.
Luke 16:9 NIV
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
DISCUSSION: Remembering examples of true friends showing up for you or you doing it for others.

John 15:15 NIV
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Friends are in the loop. Friends don’t keep secrets.
DISCUSSION: Examples of how transparency helped a friendship or how a lack of transparency harmed a friendship.

Proverbs 27:6 NIV
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Friends can speak the hard truth to you.
Proverbs 12:26 NIV
The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
We choose friends who speak the truth whether we like the timing of their truth or not.
DISCUSSION: Hard or correcting conversations you have had with a true friend and what it means to you now.

John 15:12-14 NIV
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command.
Friends act on what their friends say.
DISCUSSION: Remembering examples of friends that acted on truth and their being purposeful about staying in truth with those they consider friends.

Jeremiah 9:4-6 NIV
“Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. [5] Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. [6] You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit, they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the Lord.
There are deceivers that disguise themselves as friends.
DISCUSSION: Example of friends that have turned out to be deceivers.