How wonderful is it that Jesus calls us friends if we abide in his love by doing as he has commanded us. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father;s commandments, and abide in his love. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforeth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.(John 15:10,13-15).
Who has’nt been at one time or another in the presence of whom we thought was a good friend as we have been to them only to go on to suffer the heartbreak of being betrayed? “They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother”.(Psalm 35:12-14).
When we read the prayer of Jehoshaphat he tells us that Abraham and his seed of which we are is God’s friend for ever. “And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?”.(2 Chronicles 20:5-7). And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God”.(James 2:23).
There is an enemy of any friend and that is the person which is a gossip,for an individual that separates brethren is one of the seven things God hates. “He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips”. “A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren”. We are not suppose to be busybodies and meddle in other peoples lives. “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters”. (Proverbs 6:16-19….20:19)…..(1 Peter 4:15). And never make friends with an angry man! “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul”.
(Proverbs 22:24,25).
What a friend Naomi found in her daughter in law Ruth when she had lost her husband and both her son’s. She told Ruth to return to her sister in laws that had returned to her people and god’s, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi and decided to stay with her and only death would separate these two. “And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, , and more also, if aught but death part thee and me”.
(Ruth 1:15-17).
Precious Sheep Of Renown 