This year we have covered the first nineteen chapters of The Gospel According To Matthew and the parable in Matthew chapter 20. This week we are looking at the definitions and applications of the words "Enemy" and "Friend". In the previous post, we covered "Enemy". Here was the summary:
Your Enemy is someone who does not give back AT ALL when you initiate giving to him.
We do not determine our Enemies...the individual determines whether he is our Enemy by his response to our giving to him.
I will be using the words "Friend" and "Enemy" to denote the definitions according to God's Word...and "friend" and "enemy" to denote the definitions according to our culture (man-made tradition).
When the definition is seen in this light, it seems very few people are actually our Enemy. The rest of the people fall into a huge abstract group.
However, the Bible speaks of another relatively small group of people called Friends. Friends are a small subset of this huge abstract group...
FRIENDS
"13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you." John 15:13-15
Jesus said Friends were at a deeper level. They do everything Jesus commands them. They know Jesus well...
When we studied expectations during this Series, we saw God commands things so that He can continue making progress...dedicate resources...consider them done. This is how God can have expectations. We also saw God ONLY had expectations for Leaders and groups of people. Finally, we saw in cases where a person has expectations, it is not love. This does NOT make it a sin...it just isn't love in that instance.
In this passage from John, Jesus stated He makes all things known to His Friends...however, it looks like the cause of Him making all things known is that these people DO His commands. Two points...
Once again, the people determine whether they are a Friend of God...NOT God. God does NOT determine who is a Friend of His and who is not...just like God did NOT determine who is an Enemy of His and who is not!
Second, people who celebrate the mystery and state they don't know things from God (and can't know things) are stating they are NOT a Friend of God! Earlier in this Series, we saw Jesus stated the mysteries are made know to His followers. So, once again, Jesus consistently stated we OUGHT to know the things of God...if we are followers and Friends.
Joel Swokowski made me aware of the following point: If we are made aware of all things, we OUGHT to only speak what God wants us to speak...which means we can speak for God...and God can speak for us. (By the end of this week, we will see this is GRACE and the greatest level of Fellowship!)
For now, a Friend is someone who CAN speak for you in ANY area.
CAN - this means they are able to and allowed to.
able means they know you well enough...they know your HOW/WHY and they are interested in getting to know you better.
allowed means you don't get angry when they speak for you, regardless if they are right or wrong about what they said.
CAN implies Fellowship...
Ideally, you would first be at Fellowship (willing to share deeply mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, in all areas of your life). Fellowship is being deeply known AND deeply knowing another. It is ONLY Fellowship if you are growing in it.
If you spoke for another and were wrong, you would DESIRE to know WHY you were wrong in order to understand the person better...which is Fellowship.
They would DESIRE to share with you their WHY so that they were known better...which is Fellowship.
ANY AREA - this means you don't have to wait until you have spoken for someone in EVERY or ALL areas before you are a Friend.
Notice, you can limit this speaking authority AND it is NOT Friendship. You can tell someone at work they can speak for you when it comes to some area of your job...without you considering that person to be a Friend.
This means, Friends are made up of people we are in Fellowship with and OUGHT Marriage. Notice, NOT everyone we are in Fellowship with is a Friend. Notice, IS Marriage would NOT be Friendship. In fact...
The world makes the mistake of declaring people friends WITHOUT being at Fellowship.
Talk to people who no longer talk to their former friends. If they are honest, they will tell you about an event that caused them to stop interacting with the former friend. The event will be related to something the former friend assumed about them.
For instance, the former friend may have spoke for them to others. The person felt committed or boxed in. While the person didn't confront the former friend, the person griped to others and because he couldn't Repair, he stopped sharing.
There is a HUGE difference between "for" and "about".
People who are in Fellowship with the world/devil, may speak FOR the world/devil...and they can speak ABOUT God.
People who are in Fellowship with God, may speak FOR God...and they can speak ABOUT the world/devil.
Some people are turned off by Pastors and "Christians" because these people speak FOR God AND judge others. The "unbelievers" don't want to be Friends with the "god" these people are Friends with.
Being a Friend would result in a person growing in Fellowship, growing in trust, growing in Faith, growing in Understanding, growing in Experience, with that Friend.
I believe people can go to Heaven when they are in Relationship with God. I believe people can grow in Relationship with each other and it is a good thing. I believe people can grow in Fellowship with each other WITHOUT being Friends and it is a good thing.
The man on the cross next to Jesus did not speak FOR Jesus...he spoke ABOUT
Jesus...yet he still went to Heaven.
I believe the flesh within each of us wants to uphold man-made tradition and lower the bar for Friend so that we can feel good about ourselves by having more friends.
I believe a person will miss out on Biblical revelation if they hold to a cultural definition of friend.
SUMMARY
A Friend is someone who CAN speak for you in ANY area.
CAN - this means they are able to and allowed to.
able means they know you well enough...they know your HOW/WHY and they are interested in getting to know you better.
allowed means you don't get angry when they speak for you, regardless if they are right or wrong about what they said.
CAN implies Fellowship...
ANY AREA - this means you don't have to wait until you have spoken for someone in EVERY or ALL areas before you are a Friend.
There is a HUGE difference between "for" and "about".
People who are in Fellowship with the world/devil, may speak FOR the world/devil...and they can speak ABOUT God.
People who are in Fellowship with God, may speak FOR God...and they can speak ABOUT the world/devil.
Tomorrow, we will look at New Testament examples of Friend...
Next Post
3 comments:
First question is regarding Fellowship. A lot of times we talk my church talks about growing in fellowship with people that are in fellowship with God. Could people actually be in fellowship with God and not be growing in fellowship with another believer? I mean is it possible? It probably is with some man on a desert Island hypothetical, but wouldn't it be something to confront (as a believer to a believer) if a brother/sister in Christ wasn't growing in Fellowship with someone that was in Fellowship with God? Our body recently confronted someone we saw not growing in fellowship with someone that was in fellowship with God and it turned out that he was headed down a destructive path with his thought process. Confronting him caused him to repent and push into the body and into God.
Now about friends vs fellowship. There was a man that use to be apart of my church that said he was in fellowship and would share deeply, but also get upset if we talked about his situation outside of him being there. And again after he was no longer attending group/church would get upset if people at church that were close to him shared how he was doing. He felt dishonored and disrespected. I disagreed with this person on many accounts, but want to consider I'm wrong. Would sharing another person's story/situation while they're not there be considered trying to "be a friend" or "speak FOR them?" This is an area of Fellowship and Friendship I want more resolution on.
Joel Swokowski made me aware of the following point: If we are made aware of all things, we OUGHT to only speak what God wants us to speak...which means we can speak for God...and God can speak for us. (By the end of this week, we will see this is GRACE and the greatest level of Fellowship!)
would this be a process? What does aware mean? Does this imply understanding? Or eventually understanding? I would need to understand the how/why before I felt right about speaking FOR someone.
Good Morning Pro.
NN
Hi nathaniel,
Your first paragraph covers an issue I will be spending next week discussing. So, let's hold off on that long explanation...
Speaking for another depends on the reason for doing it. If it is because he isn't there or he believes you can resolve the issue better, then that would be part of Fellowship.
If you were speaking for him because he won't speak, but is still in Fellowship, then I don't think that is Fellowship on your part.
If the person has removed themselves from Fellowship, then as long as you are not secretly detracting, I don't think you have done anything wrong...however, if you had it, the burden of explanation would rest on the person who left Fellowship: What is his reason for you not wanting to share?
The reason could be anything from valid to pride.
If we are made aware of all things, this is not a license to tell others all things...unless you want God to make sure you ONLY know what you are able to discuss.
The point being, we need to constantly make sure we are saying and doing what God leads us to say and do. Having all the information is knowledge...which puffs people up...which can lead to pride.
Be careful! When you have a lot of information, you have a greater responsibility to handle the information the way God wants you to handle it...you ought to focus on God even more because you need Him even more.
However, people tend to think they need God LESS when they get MORE knowledge...and it always results in destruction.
Thank YOU!
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