Friend of God
by PJ Salas
“Abraham … was called the friend of God.” James2:23.
The Bible says if we are a friend of the world, we are an enemy of God (Js4:4). We cannot be friends of both the world and God.
What does it mean to be God’s friend? How are we a friend of the world? Only one person in the Bible is called a friend of God, his name is Abraham; and God Himself called Abraham His friend. (2Chr20:7;Is41:8;Js2:23)
God's Friend
In Genesis chapter twenty-six, verse five we learn why God called Abraham friend.
“There was a famine in the land … so Isaac went to Abimelech … And the Lord appeared to Isaac, saying, do not go to Egypt; live in the land I tell you. Dwell in that land and I will be with you and bless you."
"To you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and perform the oath I swore to Abraham your father; and make your descendants to multiply as the stars of heaven … and in your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, and My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Genesis26:1-5.
Obedience
God promised to keep His oath to Abraham, to bless his son Isaac and his offspring, because Abraham obeyed God. Obedience to God and His Word brings blessings from the Lord and makes us His friend.
Jesus said, if you love Me keep My commandments (John14:15), He also said, you are My friends if you do what I command you. (John15:14) The Apostle John’s first letter tells us that to disobey God’s law is sin. (1John3:4)
Obedience to God is how we love Him, and it is how we are His friend.
Disobedience
What makes us an enemy of God? If obedience makes us a friend of God, then disobedience to God makes us His enemy. All disobedience to God and His Word is sin, and it makes us His enemy.
We are not God; nor did we create ourselves. The world did not come into existence by a big bang, and we did not evolve over eons of time. God is the Creator, He is the Lord, whether we accept it or not, whether we believe it or not. Truth is truth; believing or unbelieving does not change the truth.
The Bible says that the devil and his evil angels believe and tremble, yet they will not be saved. (James2:19;Revelation20:10). Thus, to be God’s friend requires more than just claiming to follow Him, it means we must follow Him by doing what He says, by obeying Him.
How Can We Obey
How is it possible for sinful human beings to obey God? It is possible because Jesus came not only to pay the price for our disobedience, which is sin (1John3:4); but also, to show us how to obey.
Relying on Jesus
When Jesus lived on earth, He relied on the Father. The miracles Jesus did were from the Father. (Jn10:25,32;14:10). Jesus depended fully on the Holy Father to resist temptation to sin, so much so, that in the garden of Gethsemane when facing His greatest struggle He prayed and prayed to the point of sweating blood, that the Father’s will would be done, not what He wanted in His humanness. (Lk22:44;He12:4).
Through the example of Jesus, of how He lived a sanctified life, a life of obedience to God, we learn how it is we can be obedient to God, how it is we can be His friend. By relying fully upon Christ for His strength and help, we become obedient to God and His commands. We can do all things through Jesus who strengthens us. (Php4:13).
Our Necessity
Our society is in open rebellion against the Creator and His government, against His law and His governance. Sin and our own way is our preference; and look at the mess we have made for ourselves, the turmoil we continue to keep ourselves in.
Disobedience caused sin to enter our world, and disobedience keeps us in sin. All the sickness, and hate, the abuse and terror, the devastation are by our own hand. We try to fix things our way, but it never really works. Our necessity is to be like Abraham and be God’s friend, not His enemy. We need to let Jesus come into our lives and help us be the kind of people God can call His friends.
Wake Up! Hear the Alarms
Disaster after disaster, terror, and abuse running rampant, sickness and dementedness increases daily, literally; and the number of disturbed, psychotic, and deranged people grows continually.
What is it going to take to wake us up, to see that our ways do not work? Wake up! Hear the alarms! God will not be patient with us forever. “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11. This speaks to all of us, and our bad behavior.
Be A Friend of God
Let this be the day you call on Jesus to help you be His friend, to help you be a friend to the Holy Father. Be like Abraham and obey God through Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
“You believe there is one God; you do well, for even the demons believe and tremble! However, do you not know, oh foolish one, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?" (Ge22:2).
"Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and his works made his faith perfect? Thus the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God (Ge15:1-6;2Chr20:7;Is41:8).” James2:19-23.
