Greater Purpose: Being a Greater Friend
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Greater Purpose: We're Called To Be Greater Friends

Being a good friend means showing Christ's love to all people.

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My Engage Small Group, some of the best friends that have encouraged me in my walk in Christ.
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To start off, I want to thank Dalton, one of our newcomers in our youth, for his testimony, as well as Shane for essentially summing up my message for me. With that, I will now be giving a reflection/commentary. If you would like to listen to the message or any others, you can find those on my Facebook page.

In Dalton's testimony, he mentioned how he had been bullied. People didn't treat him right growing up. Now that he has been at Southeastern, and has also become part of the youth at Pine Mountain Community Church, he has felt welcomed and accepted.

Dalton's story reminded me a little of my own. In middle school, I was bullied because I cheered throughout my sixth and seventh-grade years. I look back now and think it was probably a pretty dumb reason to be bullied, but in the end, I ended up leaving Locust Fork at the end of my junior year with a wealth of friends I still keep up with to this day. I transitioned from there to Southeastern for my senior year and graduated from there with many friends who I still talk to and keep up with to this day.

These examples bring me to my first point from this message. As Christians, being a greater friend means not only going the extra mile for others but strengthening them in their walk in Christ as well. We'll look more at the whole going the extra mile part more when we focus on the parables later in the summer.

Look at Acts 4:32-35. Notice in the latter part of the passage (verses 34-35) that everyone who believed in Christ gave up their possessions for those in need. This shows us that we should seek to be willing to sacrifice our time, money, or resources, when our friends or anyone else may be in need.

While we need to be willing to sacrifice for those in need, look at the verses prior (verses 32-33). This part of the passage tells us that each person who believed in Christ were of one heart and one mind, and they sought to share the Gospel with everyone they came in contact with. Like the people mentioned in this group in the passage, we should seek to be of one heart and mind, sharing the Gospel and what Christ has done with every person we come in contact with.

In preparing for this lesson and writing the content, I was a little stumped as to what passages talked about being a better friend. That's when God led me to two different passages in the book of Romans. In these two passages, Paul gives us some crucial advice on how we should treat those we consider our friends.

Looking at Romans 15:7-13, Paul references three instances from the Old Testament about how we should seek to glorify and praise God together. While that's the main idea of this passage, Paul gives us some very important advice in verse 7. We're supposed to be accepting of one another, as well as all people. This includes people we don't like or the crowds in society seem to shun. Society creates so many labels that divide us, including tall, short, fat, skinny, athletic, strong, weak, and the list goes on. As Christians, we are called to glorify God in unity, regardless of our talents, limitations, or any other divide society tries to create.

What that means is, no matter what society says you can or can't do, or what society says your worth is, you are worth it to God! God created all of us with a specific purpose, and He gives us specific gifts and talents (more on that in the next article), which we should seek to use to bring others to Him.

Paul isn't quite done convicting us through the words given to him through God. In Romans 14:13-19, he gives us several words of advice as to how we should treat one another. There are portions of this passage that I believe could convict each of us and make us ponder how to better ourselves for Christ. There are some areas even I need to work on from this passage, but through the grace of God, I firmly believe He will work on those in my life.

The first point Paul makes in this passage is don't judge one another. I would say that this can go as far as to say don't hold anyone's past sin against them, as well as anyone's disability or any other label that can be used to judge and divide. As I mentioned in the previous article, Jesus doesn't count our sins against us when we accept Him because He died for them. While we didn't do that for anyone, we shouldn't hold anyone's sin against them because we struggle with our own sin.

Jesus even mentions this in what is known as the "Sermon on the Mount." In Matthew 7, Jesus says, "Why do you look at the splinter in your brother's eye but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the splinter out of your eye,' and look, there is a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First, take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye (Matthew 7:3-5 CSB)." What Jesus is saying here is, don't judge others or hold their sin against them because we have our own sins that we need to work on. However, this does not mean don't lovingly correct a friend when they are doing something wrong.

I'll give you an example. During my senior year, a friend of mine (who is also a cousin) was getting into the wrong crowd and doing things he shouldn't have. One of our other cousins and I went to his house one Sunday afternoon and talked to him, telling him that if he continued down that path, he would end up in trouble, and those people would abandon him. He ended up realizing how fragile life was that night when a friend of ours, who had come over to talk to him as well on his dirt bike, was hit by a vehicle on his way home on his dirt bike. The friend ended up with a broken arm and some bruises, but our cousin realized that night that life is very fragile and can be taken in an instant. That night, he repented and told that group of friends he had to distance himself from them.

Paul also tells us in Romans 14:13-19 not to be a stumbling block. Put in simple terms, this means don't do something that can cause other believers to fall away or hinder their faith. This isn't always the easiest thing. We're human, and we're constantly messing up (I know I'm guilty here); however, we should always seek to lead others to Christ, pointing to Him through our words and actions.

The last point Paul makes in this passage is to pursue what promotes peace and builds one another up. In other words, we should be seeking to encourage one another in our daily walk with Christ. We should also be building one another up, instead of tearing one another down based on our abilities.

We live in a society that seeks to tear one another down. Our society seeks to judge one another based on the other's past and the sin in the other individual's life when we have our sin that we will have to answer to one day. If we sought instead to live out what Paul advises us to do in Romans 14:13-19 specifically, I believe this world would be a significantly better place.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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