april 3, 2023
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
-Proverbs 17:17
As a motorcyclist, I enjoy riding with anyone who also loves to ride. It’s a bond we share that unites us in a very tangible and, often unexplainable, way. However, there is a core group that I ride with where our bond extends beyond a love of motorcycles. Together we are an eclectic group, from so many backgrounds and with vastly different vocations and from such varied walks of life that one might wonder how we even function! Honestly, aside from motorcycles, I often wonder if we ever would have truly found one another and drawn so close to each other. What holds us together, what makes us a family, is more than just our love for motorcycles. We are each united by our faith in Jesus Christ and that is what this week's verse is really talking about, genuine friendship that is born of true love for our fellow man and a very undeserved gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Our friendship has an underlying understanding of our shared faith that transcends the bonds of any friendship that exists, where Christ is not at the center. In the gospel of Matthew, one of the disciples asked a very important question:
“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
-Matthew 22:36-39
When Jesus references “your neighbor,” He does not only mean the person who lives next door, He is talking about your fellow man. Really, in our lives, we encounter only two types of friendships, and I have already touched on both of them to a degree. The first is the simple, natural friendship that arises over shared interests or just given proximity to one another. This friendship is, often, fleeting and does not endure change and hardships. I’ve been through these friendships, I don’t dislike those that I was once associated with, it is just that we simply went in different directions and fell out of touch with one another.
The other type of friendship, the one that endures, is the one that is Christ-centered. We are called to develop bonds and relationships with other believers, this is the foundation of the fellowship we find in our own church. This doesn’t mean that we form some elite group and we only befriend fellow Christians. To do that would be to ignore the example Christ set for us during His time on earth. Sure, He traveled with His disciples, but He spent a lot of time with sinners, sharing a piece of Him with each of them, longing to draw them towards Him. So, yes, we should surround ourselves with Christian friends, they are the source of our encouragement and support as we venture out into the world to fulfill the Great Commission. We need to seek bonds with those who don’t yet know Christ and share Him with them through our words, our example, and our love.
You see, a Christian friend is not fickle and their love doesn’t ebb and flow with various events that transpire between themselves and others. A Christ-centered friendship exhibits genuine love. This love is described in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
-1 Corinthians 13:4-7
This doesn’t say that these friendships will be rainbows and sunshine every single day, but it does indicate that we should speak truth, from a place of love, when necessary. Love bears all things. Our love for one another covers all offenses, this is not the same as pretending they never happened, but we uplift one another and restore each other to a right standing with God.
You see, this is the friendship I have found with the men and women of the Baptist Bikers, as well as within my own church. While I don’t see my brothers and sisters in the Baptist Bikers every day, or every week, when we get together the bond is just as strong as it was before. Sure, we stay in touch periodically, but the friendships do not feel forced in any way, we each and every one feel the shared love for one another and the mutual desire to see others come to Christ. Your friends should be your refuge, your support system, and they should be unwavering. When your friendships are centered around Jesus Christ, then that is the friendship you will find. When you have this in your life, you now must go out and share that with others. Show them the love of Christ, share Him with them, and watch that circle of friends grow in a way that can only be attributed to the handiwork of God. It is these very friendships that have led me to where I am today, and I am eternally grateful. So, to all of my brothers and sisters in the Baptist Bikers, I love you, I’m thankful for you, and you have done more to shape me and draw me closer to Christ than you could ever imagine.
