- Posted By Beauty for Ashes
“A man of many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)
Can you have too many friends? Proverbs says you can. It’s like a lot of things. If you try to do to many things at once, you will do none of them well. If you try to do a few things, you have a chance to do all of them well. If you try to overextend yourself, everyone will feel a little short changed and begin to fall away. Chose your friends wisely too. The company you keep is an indication of your own character.
We all have trials. Jesus promised us that in our lives we would have trials. Some of them are problems of our own making and some seem to just seek us out. There is nothing that says any of this is necessarily fair, so blaming anyone for a trial is a waste of time. None of the things that happened to Jesus, especially during the last week of His life on earth, had anything to do with fair. His disciples, His close friends, all scattered in fear for their lives. Peter watched from a distance. Only John came to the foot of the cross with the women. This was a trial for the disciples as much as for Jesus. Out of it, they all learned something about themselves from their treatment of Jesus in His trial. Their lives were changed forever and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, they rattled the Roman world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a generation.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus called two of His friends slow and dull of heart. To these two who did not recognize Him yet, it must have been quite a moment to have been corrected so strongly by a stranger. But the truth is, they could not deny the accusation. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” Proverbs 27:6
In our lives we will know precious few of these friends who stick closer than a brother. Just like a refiners fire boils raw material until the impurities can be separated, brought to the surface and removed, trials refine and purify relationships. We are human and we will fail. Our friends, except for Jesus, are human and sill fail us too. Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, are all made from the same dust we are. To expect more from them than we expect of ourselves is like the slave who threw his fellow slave into prison over a debt of a few dollars when he had been forgiven a lifetime of debt to his master.
The point is that even the best of friends and the closest relationships will suffer failures and faults. These are the times that can tear the life out of a relationship ot make them stronger. If a bone is broken and not set, it will heal very badly causing a lot of problems. But, if the bone is carefully set, it will mend and the point of the break will actually be stronger when it is healed. True friendship will hold the wound closed like a stitch across a gash, giving it time to heal. Even very bad wounds in a relationship don’t need to be fatal, it is always possible to forgive and rebuild.
