Times!

Times!

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17 KJV

Relationships seem to be the focus for the entire chapter under review. 

How do you define a friend: 'a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations'. How do you define a brother: a man or boy in relation to other sons or daughters of his parents.

So, 1. As a friend, the first consideration isn't what I can get from the relationship, but what is expected of me as a friend. If I call myself someone else's friend, I won't be looking to him to first prove him/herself to me. I am the one who will, by my actions and reactions show that I am a friend. It is not first about the other person proving s/he is worthy of my friendship. It is a tough one, but when Jesus says: 'you are my friends if you do what I command you', he places the duty of friendship on my doorstep, not subject to the reaction or response of the other person. 

That is the slight difference between the way the world defines it above and the way Jesus defines it. We want to be friends with people whose reaction or response we can predict, but nowhere does Jesus command this. Am I a friend to another first because it is convenient, or because I gain something from the relationship or because it is mutually beneficially? Is that all there is to my friendships? 

2. A friend has no ethnic, familial, racial or language foundation. It is based on the humanity concept, where I make friends because I seek to make Jesus known. I am not first seeking convenience, but that Jesus is made known to all who come in contact with me. If I am blessed with someone who sees friendship the same way I do, glory to God. If I meet someone who keeps repaying good with evil, even if I have to keep my distance, does my heart still flow out with the kind of love Jesus showed me even when I rejected Him? It's deep, and it's not humanly possible, but for all who bear allegiance to Jesus, we have received the grace and accepted the duty to live lives that make the clear difference that we know and have Jesus in us. How else can the world understand true friendship if our lives do not make it plain? 

3. What of a brother? In the natural realm, there is a blood connection, and other lives related to that individual. The underlying message here seems to be that God Himself gives families support systems for the days of trouble. He makes us that none of us is left alone at any time. The virgin birth has and will only happen once, and even Jesus had other brothers and sisters. It means that I was not created to bear burdens alone, or to act macho and go it alone. The wise God has placed individuals on my way, both in my natural family and in the spiritual family who will stand by and support me. As it is in the natural realm, so is it in the spiritual realm. I have brothers bound to me by the blood of Jesus, men and women wfo are washed in the same blood and who can give their lives for me, just as I can for them. This is deep, and is not the stuff you can demand from the natural man, but then Jesus places no demand on people who do not bear allegiance to Him. He's made it clear: you are my friends if you do what I command you.

Now I know, what is expected of me? It can't be the usual, the normal and the expected; it has to line up with the divine standard laid down by God. Am I a friend as only the world defines it, or can God count on me to be the kind of person He wants and commands? Can another person look at me and know that s/he can trust me as a friend and brother or as neither? Personal questions, with personal answers. His time of favour is here.