The Best of FriendsExemplo

The Huddle

Maybe your inner circle doesn’t look anything like a United Nations summit, and that’s fine. But we can learn so much from the way Jesus chose to invest in friendships with people who were different from Him and from one another. Our intentional connections with a diversity of people proclaim the gospel to a fractured world.

Jesus tells His disciples, ‘I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.’ (John 15:15) Jesus shared with His disciples all the hurts and highlights of His earthly life and ministry. He showed them His heart, and the heart of His Father, because vulnerability builds trust. Honesty takes enormous courage but results in the deepening of friendships. If you want followers, tweet about your achievements. If you want friends, talk honestly about your hopes, fears, and failures. This holds true when we don’t necessarily share history or context or life experience with our friends. We can build meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life by generously, unselfishly, and consistently giving them our honesty, our time, and our presence, laying down our schedules and our preferences to love them well.

Luke 6:14-16 lists Jesus’ twelve disciples. It’s probable that seven of the twelve were fishermen from around Bethsaida and knew each other before Jesus called them. It’s totally normal and natural to seek out those who are similar to you, or those with whom you share common ground. Jesus reinforced the truth that we’re wired to build friendship on the foundation of shared interests or experiences. However, His intentional choice of the other five disciples – who were not fishermen from Bethsaida – teaches us another valuable lesson about friendship. Simon and Matthew, for example, would've had extremely different political views, and yet Jesus drew them together. We can expect the same kinds of divides in our friendship communities, and how we learn to love one another preaches the good news of Jesus to a divided world that is watching.

We don’t need to befriend a diversity of other people to tick a box or prove a point. Rather, like Jesus did, let’s intentionally invest in friendships with people who are different from us, to reflect the heart of our God who so loved the world He sent His Son to die for it. May we never miss out on the kaleidoscopic beauty of the bride of Christ, the Church, made possible through diverse relationships.