Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
It has been said that if you find one true friend in life you are lucky. Most of us have experienced the pain of betrayal at the hands of a “friend.” It can be difficult to know if such people ever truly were our friends or if they simply changed for the worse over time. The hard part about human companions is we cannot see into their hearts (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:11), so we are left to deal with the pain and only wonder what really happened in situations like that. Fortunately, there are true friends in this life, and when we have the proof of such, we must be very thankful.
The good news is every one of us has the truest of friends waiting to demonstrate His unswerving dedication to our welfare. If we have doubts of the truthfulness of this claim, we ought to consider the lengths to which He has gone to save us from ourselves. Several passages deal with the subject, but we will consider two.
First, in Philippians 2:1-11, Paul urges the Philippian Christians to look out for the interests of others using Jesus’ self-sacrifice as the motivation. One of the difficulties of being a true friend is putting away our self-centeredness. We all have our wants and preferences in life. Anyone who has raised or is raising children understands all too well that selflessness is a learned trait, and that it is learned with great difficulty. Sadly, many people never overcome the desire to look out for number one even if it is to the detriment of our fellows. Part of the problem is our pride causes us to feel entitled to certain things.
If anyone was ever truly entitled, it is Jesus. He is the Creator and sustainer of the whole cosmos (cf. John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:1-3). He is the only one who ever lived a sinless life (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 Peter 2:22). He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords (1 Timothy 6:15-16). Yet, He humbled Himself, became a bondservant (literally a slave), and gave Himself to die a cruel death for you and me. Paul’s point is, if God the Son was willing to come down from His rightful position in glory to suffer and die for our sins, we can surely learn to care for one another truly and consistently.
The second passage is found in Hebrews 2:5-18. After demonstrating the unquestionable supremacy of Jesus over the angels, the writer then describes how He willfully placed Himself below them for a time to do what we could not do for ourselves. The key to our discussion is the emphasis on His suffering to enable Him to help us when we are in need. Hebrews 2:17 points out the necessity of His becoming like us in order to be a merciful and faithful High Priest. It was impossible for Him to mediate for us in the presence of God without having fully experienced the human condition. We are blessed to have a High Priest who fully understands our plight and desires to help us.
It is truly difficult to find friends who will stand by us through the good and the bad. At the end of the day, even the best of people will fail us due to ignorance and weakness. Jesus, on the other hand, will never fail us. Hebrews 13:8 assures us that He is never changing. As Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “…I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.” Try as we may, we will not find another friend like the lowly Jesus. The question is, what kind of friends will we be to Him? (cf. John 15:13-14)