MUSINGS

‘FRIENDSHIP’ Christ has a circle of friends. It is not so large as the circle of those who know and trust Him as their Saviour. Whether I am among His friends can easily be tested by His own statement in John 15: 14—“Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you”. Clearly if I am not practising what He commands I cannot claim to be among His friends. It is meant

to appeal to every lover of Christ; as loving Him we surely would want to be in the near circle of those who give Him comfort and pleasure because it is their desire and joy to do His will.

Knowing the kind of persons whom the Lord Jesus calls His friends will decide who are my friends. How can I have free and happy social links with those who are not in the circle of the friends of Jesus? If through grace it has become my main concern to please Him who loved me and gave Himself for me, how can my circle of friends include those to whom His commandments are of little importance? It is a happy thing—a right thing—when my friends are His friends according to John 15: 14. That is what John again speaks of—“The friends greet thee. Greet the friends by name”, 3 John 14; they are those who are, as he says, “walking in the truth” (3 John 4).

FCM