Good morning. My grandmother used to warn us that we would be judged by the company we keep. Her point was that we should choose our friends wisely because we were not strong enough in faith, ethics, morals, etc. to live righteously and make good choices if we hung around with people who were not moral, ethical, and faithful. She wasn’t being critical of us she was being honest. How did she know this to be true? Because no one in her experience had been an exception to this rule.
Indeed, grandma’s wisdom was on the mark. We should choose our friends wisely for all of the reasons just mentioned.
While that is true, let me say this: God chose to have some pretty weird friends.
Abraham was God’s choice to be the person from whom His people would descend. But it wasn’t easy. Abraham continued to have problems and make bad choices (Hagar and Ishmael come to mind) but God says this about him: And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and God called him His friend. James 2:23 Or how about Moses? Moses was a murderer by the age of 40, and he ran away and lived with people who were not Jews, the people of God’s choosing, until age 80. When God came to him and told Moses that he had been chosen for one of human history’s greatest roles of leadership, Moses told God to send his brother Aaron. Yet we read in Exodus 33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
When we read of King David, we see that he made some good choices and some very poor choices (Bathsheba comes to mind). We read in Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him (Saul), he gave them David to be their king; and of David God gave His testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, to be a man after mine own heart, and he shall fulfil my will.
Jesus had some weird friends too: Peter was head-strong and rebellious; Matthew was a tax collector and had been hated by all; Thomas couldn’t accept anything without absolute proof; Judas…Judas was a thief who Jesus put in charge of their funds and was the one who ultimately would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
Jesus had this to say about them, and about us: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends when you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Jesus tells them, and us, that we are His friends. We are, as His friends, part of His inner circle. His relationship with us is as our Lord and Savior, and as His personal friends. We cannot call Him Lord if we refuse to obey His commands. We cannot call Him friend if we refuse to live at His side.
Do you sometimes wonder if you may be a little too “weird” to be the friend of God? Don’t worry, God has chosen the difficult, the odd, even the weird as His friends. You and I fit right in!
Vern