Christianity is about friendship. Making friends was how the first followers of Jesus grew into what we now call church.
“Early on, Christians began to see themselves as people who had been befriended by God,” says Greg Moore, who is starting new churches in North Carolina. He explains, “By extension, they began to see friendship as the theater of salvation. It was in our friendships that we found ourselves being saved. Holy friendships, like the divine friendship of the Trinity, became the most basic way of life among those who followed Jesus.”
Greg Moore continues, “Before long, Christians began to practice friendship in very particular ways with all sorts of people. According to Acts 2, they ate together, prayed together, and learned together.”
That was then and this is now. Moore notes, “In a very real way, friendship became a matter of life and death for those who were seeking to follow Christ. It still is.”
Making holy friendships — relationships that make us whole — is still important for individuals and churches today.
Moore adds, “We are the ones who understand God to have befriended us in Jesus, not because we were perfect, not because we think like God or act like God, but because friendship is the very nature of God. Our call today is to remember how to practice friendship intentionally, as if our life depends on it.”
LEARN MORE about making friends like Jesus.
Last Updated on October 1, 2019