For your name’s sake, O Lord,
    pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Who are they that fear the Lord?
    He will teach them the way that they should choose.

They will abide in prosperity,
    and their children shall possess the land.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
    and he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
    for he will pluck my feet out of the net.  

Psalm 25:11-15

God offers His friendship to mere humans.  Pause and absorb that thought.  It is an incomprehensibly awesome concept that we might have the holy Creator of the universe, the One who holds the world and everything in His hand, at our side as our companion, confidant, advisor, and everything else friendship suggests.  It is an amazing gift of grace that carries with it responsibility because all friendships are bilateral.

The psalmist ties the notion of friendship with covenant, and God’s holy word describes Abraham as God’s friend because Abraham demonstrated his faithfulness to God and their covenant, choosing God above everything, even his son (see 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23).    I’ve heard it said that friendship begins with a shared interest, worldview, situation, experience or need – two people discover something they have in common, and that commonality provides a seed capable of growing.  Friendship typically involves two relative equals, walking through the world side-by-side, looking at the world together, sharing the experience, engaging in conversation, gradually allowing the vulnerability of transparency, and growing toward knowing one another through a sacred trust.  Faith and trust are critical, which is where the concept of covenant comes in.  

When we see friendships where one has power over the other, we might question whether it is truly friendship, whether the relationship is somehow transactional, or whether we are simply failing to see the commonality.  Questions like these inevitably arise when we consider the possibility of mere humans engaging in friendship with God.  God is awesome.  His power is beyond anything we can imagine.  He spoke the universe and everything in it into existence out of nothing.  He breathes the breath of life.  He is everywhere, unbound by space, unbound by time.  He knows everything, His thinking is perfect, His love is perfect, and His justice is perfect.  And He loves us and hears our prayers and responds and He gave His Son so that we might gain life and enjoy abundant life.  

We cannot event begin to imagine the width and breath of the gap between who we are and who He is, because our minds are too limited to understand His power, His glory, and who He is.  We see glimpses that are awesome beyond words, and our glimpses reveal we are nothing compared to God.  We will never fully comprehend Him.  We are mere clay that He molds, and into whom He breathes life.  

A power gap clearly exists, yet through His holy word, God promises friendship with those who fear Him (see Psalm 25:14).  How can we be friends with Almighty God?  What commonality do we share that provides a basis for friendship? What sort of friendship might that be?  

We see in Genesis that God creates humans in His image (see Genesis 1:27), but we know ours is a far from complete and perfect copy.  Through Christ Jesus we gain answers to our questions.  First, by believing in Him, following Him and receiving God’s holy, gracious gift of new life, forgiveness and reconciliation, we gain His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and we gain His resulting transformation, and we gain the possibility of relationship with Him, communion with Him, even friendship with Him.

As the Last Supper drew to an end, Jesus addressed the topic by describing His disciples as His friends saying,

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.   I do not call you servants[d] any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”  John 15:12-17

Abraham was called a friend of God because through faith, he fulfilled his covenant with God, and through faith in Christ Jesus, we too can be called His friends.  Friendship is truly a sacred trust.  Jesus commands His disciples to love one another as He loved them.  He then explains that He loves them by laying down His life for them.  He invites us into friendship with Him, into a relationship involving faith and trust, and His model of friendship calls us to lay down our lives for one another.  

What does this mean for us?  Like human friendships, the relationship involves trust and confidence that the other one is present, interested, concerned, listening and responding.  It involves conversation, small acts of kindness, and the gift of time.  Conversations with God involve prayer and meditating on Scripture as a continuing cycle – we speak to God and He speaks to us.  We show kindness to God when we respect the ones He loves through acts of justice, mercy and love, and He loves the entire world.  We also spend time praising and worshiping Him, because He deserves nothing less.

As outrageously awesome as it sounds, we can be called friends of God through Christ Jesus.  How awesome is that?