Kingdom Friendships

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. (Proverbs 27:17)

DAVID RECEIVED SOME BAD NEWS. Saul, the king of Israel, was searching for him to kill him and had gotten word of where David was hiding. It was a critical moment—one where David could have lost heart or forgotten his God-given purpose. Fortunately, Saul’s son Jonathan found David before Saul did and reassured him. Jonathan reminded David of his calling and promised to remain a loyal friend. They renewed their bond, and David was strengthened. Jonathan represented God’s nature and spoke God’s words during David’s time of need.

That’s how friendships work. Your relationship with God changes everything about you, but you don’t know God in isolation. You know him through the people who personify his nature, who show you what it looks like to experience his love, compassion, wisdom, grace, and so much more. That means that to encounter God as fully as you can, you will need to connect yourself to friends, some of whom will know him already and some of whom will still be seeking him. Jesus is not a method, a principle, or a belief; he calls his followers friends. Your personal relationship with him is important, but it is not enough. In a very real sense, you can only experience him in the context of human relationships.

Seek friends who make you better by encouraging and affirming you but also by challenging you and telling you hard truths. Make sure you are that kind of friend to others as well. Throughout your life, you will need to be both someone who can be sharpened and a sharpener, someone who can be influenced and an influencer of the people around you. The Kingdom of God is built on relationships—first and foremost with God himself, but by extension with the people he has called or is calling into life with him. It is a fellowship of the Spirit, a body of believers, a community focused on one Lord and a common cause. Our influence in the world begins there, in relationships, seeking and experiencing God together.

{Jesus, it’s astonishing that you would call me a friend. But you do more than that; you invite me into a global network of friends who love you and serve you faithfully. Bring me into that fellowship of salt and light, and transform your world through our love for one another. Amen.