Friendship tests

Jesus set amazingly high standards of friendship, said Ravi. Jesus called disciples his friend and died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for his friends. The human race started as friends of God; and then tempted by the Devil they chose him as their friend and lost their innocence, felt ashamed of God and became enemies of one another, deceiving and killing even their family members just as Cain murdered his younger brother, Abel. Isn’t the sinfulness of human beings visible as the blood of the innocent is spilt? Yet God incarnated in the person of Jesus to seek and save his lost friends. Amazing friendship indeed.
Jesus lived a life above reproach. Jesus challenged people to point to him. At no point did Jesus let down his disciples. He prayed for their protection as recorded in John seventeen. In chapter eighteen soldiers come to arrest Jesus from the garden of Gethsemane; where Jesus had gone with his disciples. Jesus stood up for their disciple like a rock and told soldiers you have come to arrest me let my
disciple go.
It must have been painful for Jesus to see Judas his disciple betray him with a kiss. When Jesus was arrested disciples ran away in fear. Peter who promised never to deny him, was fearful when a young girl identified him as a Galilean who had been with Jesus. And denied even knowing Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead and met Peter, Jesus did not accuse Peter of betrayal of friendship; yet asked him a simple question, “Peter do we love me.” Then Jesus asked Peter, “Feed my sheep.” Friendship rests on self-sacrificial love. No wonder apostle Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). Our homes will be heaven on earth if we practice Jesus’ kind of friendship. Let’s practice Jesus’ kind of friendship the violent world needs it!