December 31, 2010: Friendship With God

Some may have wondered why I objected so strongly last week to the song

I am a friend of God!
I am a friend of God!
I am a friend of God!
He's my friend!

So I would like to explain.

I know of three cases in the Bible that speak of friendship with the Almighty. They concern Moses, Abraham, and the disciples of Jesus Christ.

1) Moses

Exodus 33:11 says, "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." This passage distinguishes Moses from other prophets. In Numbers 12:6-8, when Moses' siblings criticize his choice of a wife, the Lord says to them, “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

So Moses was on spectacularly friendly terms with Jehovah. But of course, as the texts make clear, he was an exception.

2) Abraham

In 2 Chronicles 20:7 the chronicler asks, "Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?" This is the verse that James alludes to when he writes, "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend." (James 2:23)

Old Testament and New Testament alike confirm that Abraham was a friend of God.

3) The Disciples of Christ

Jesus says to his disciples in John 15:14-15, "You are my friends if 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 graciously called his disciples friends.

Please notice (it's the vital point!) that in none of these cases does a man call himself a friend of God. God is the one who makes that designation - whether directly or through inspiring the chronicler or apostle.

If Jesus calls you his friend, that's fine. But should you call yourself his friend? Absolutely not. He has commanded you to do otherwise. In Luke 17:10 he said to his disciples, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have only done our duty.'" How interesting! When we do everything commanded of us, Jesus calls us "friends" (John 15:15) but insists that we call ourselves "unworthy servants" (Luke 17:10).

Of course, for many of us, this point is moot because we haven't been obedient to his commands in the first place. But let me assume (generous assumption) that you indeed have been as obedient to the Lord as Abraham, Moses and the disciples of Christ. Let me recommend to you a role model regarding self-designation: the Apostle Paul. Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever known and author of half the books of the New Testament, never dared call himself a "friend of Christ." The term he preferred was the one Jesus commanded: doulos, slave:

Romans 1:1: Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God,

Galatians 1:10b: If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ.

Titus 1:1: Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness

Paul's did not use that term "slave" for himself alone - he applied it to others too:

Colossians 4:12: Epaphras, who is one of you and a slave of Christ Jesus, sends greetings

2 Timothy 2:24: And the Lord's slave must not quarrel: instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

The song "I am a friend of God!" makes the ghastly mistake of assuming that something that may be true about us is seemly and appropriate when said by us. But this is manifestly false. We might say, "John Doe is a worthy recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor," but if Mr. Doe himself says, "I am a worthy recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor" we'd recoil in disgust. My brothers and I will all tell you, "Lowell Lundquist was the finest man we ever knew." But the thought of my father himself affirming "I am the finest man I know" is an imagination so perverse and alien that I can barely type the words.

No one understands this better than my lovely wife, whose praises I sing with constant joy but who cannot manage to say one kind word about herself. In her bones she knows the truth of Proverbs 27:2: "Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips."

So please don't say "I am a friend of God" until you can honestly put yourself in the company of Abraham, Moses, and the disciples of Jesus Christ. Don't say it until you have fulfilled the condition that Jesus placed upon such friendship in John 15:14: obedience to his commands.

And don't say it even then.