“What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!”
The words of this beloved hymn have been sung in many churches throughout the years. It is a hymn of comforting reminders to the believer. But how many of us have taken the time to ponder what it means to have Jesus as our friend? Can Jesus be both our Savior and our friend? In Drew Hunter’s book, Made for Friendship, the author aims to answer questions such as these. Not only does he help to harmonize friendship with our Creator, but he also builds off this idea to help our earthly friendships flourish. Hunter’s book is divided into three main headings: The Necessity of Friendship, The Gift of Friendship, and The Redemption of Friendship. In each section, I greatly enjoyed reading many scriptural references as well as beautiful quotes from past Puritans. Drew Hunter offers a healthy balance of theological insights of friendship as well as practical application. His observations often convicted me, yet still encouraged me in my walk with Christ and my pursuit of friendship with others. At the end of each chapter, Hunter also provides reflection questions to ponder. Whether going through this book personally or in a study with others, the questions are a wonderful addition to the book!
On a more personal note, this book also challenged me in my parenting. Not only was I thinking of ways to grow my relationships, but also of ways to help cultivate Christ-like friendships with my children. We all have fond memories of childhood friendships, and some of us are exceedingly blessed to have maintained those friendships into adulthood. It’s a blessing I pray for my children in the years to come as they grow. Thomas Brooks says, “Let those be your choicest companions who have made Christ their chief companion.”[1] A friend who walks alongside us in the trials, laughs with us in the highlights, and spurs us on towards Christ is a grace to the Christian life and throughout eternity. As Hunter notes in his book, “Many people think that eternal life will be boring. But think about your most joyful moments with friends. Now take that joy, multiply it by ten thousand, and project it into your eternal future. The whole of that happiness merely gestures in the direction of the joys to come. History ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but with the laughter of friends.”[2]
Finally, I pray my children (and myself!) would also view the Lord not only as our Prophet, Priest, and King, but also as our greatest friend. We find this promise to believers in John 15:14-17:
“You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.”
– John 15:14-17 (LSB)
And again in Psalm 25:14, the ESV renders it this way: “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” Viewing Jesus as our friend does not diminish His splendor, but only magnifies it. Hunter puts it this way:
“When we see Jesus as the Holy One, radiant in splendor, we behold glory. But when this same exalted King offers himself to us in friendship, we don’t see less glory; we see more. Because we behold not just regal power but riches of grace (Eph. 1:7). Christ’s glory shone in the humility of his incarnation and his cross, where he became one of us and died for us. And he died not just to pardon us as enemies–allowing us into his kingdom, but nudging us into the corner–but to welcome us as dear friends.”[3]
I hope you take the time to read this small, but mighty book, and it encourages you in your friendship with the Lord and His people. I’ll end with one final quote, as Spurgeon says it best, “It is a mark of wonderful condescension on His part that He should call us His friends and it confers upon us the highest conceivable honor that such a Lord as He is, so infinitely superior to us, should condescend to enter into terms of friendship with us… That I should be Your friend- nothing but Your loving, condescending tenderness could ever have conceived of this!”[4]
Bibliography
[1] Drew Hunter, Made for Friendship: The Relationship That Halves Our Sorrows and Doubles Our Joys, (Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois, 2018), 92.
[2] Ibid. 137
[3] Ibid. 140
[4] Ibid. 142