Friendship
We’re spending the summer talking about the means of grace; the conduits by which God delivers his kind favour to us. Obvious ones include reading the Word, prayer, worship, the Lord’s Table and baptism. Less obvious ones include two that we will look at over the next two Sundays: friendship and rest. Thinking of your friendships, have you considered that God uses these relationships to show you his grace? Not to mention that he will use you to deliver grace to others. On Sunday, we’ll look at the short letter from Paul to Philemon because it gets to the heart of Christian friendship and the delivery of grace through it. On its face, the letter is an appeal from one dear friend to another about the status of a third person known to both. Such a letter could not be written unless a deep, abiding friendship existed. And it is that secondary purpose for the letter—the underlying friendship—that will guide our time in the Word. There’s something for everyone in this message. We all need a primer on how to be the right kind of friend, informed not by the world’s ideas of friendship, but God’s.
Series: Means of Grace (Summer series)
Message: 5 - Friendship
Text: Philemon
Todd Dugard
Harvest Bible Chapel
July 31, 2022
As a Christian, my friendships will serve as a means of grace…
…if they receive the proper time and attention (v. 1-7)
κοινωνία (koinonia) – an association involving close mutual relations and involvement; close association, fellowship
Louw and Nida
…knowing that such relationships can be put on the line(8-20)
Matthew 10:37
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
Plutarch
Proverbs 27:6a
Proverbs 18:24
The significance of friends is found in their quality, not quantity.
Bruce Waltke
John 15:13
…because we are to always assume the best of each other (21-24)
My friendships will serve as a means of grace if they receive the proper time and attention, knowing that such relationships can be put on the line because we are to always assume the best of each other.
Resource:
5 Things Satan doesn't want you to know about friendship
https://evangileqc.com/author/geoffreyjwright/