- Galatians 4:16 (The Message)
And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.
True friendship means venturing into territory that may turn your friend, or more likely your friendly acquaintance, into your enemy.
True friendship is risky, indeed even dangerous.
Think about it. We share things about ourselves with another person which often we are not even comfortable “sharing” with ourselves.
Truly becoming friends we confront our vulnerabilities and the vulnerabilities of our potential friend.
Seeing each other for who we really are is both good and bad. We face disappointment in who we are and in who they are.
And now we begin to see if our journey was all about us or about being a friend as pleases our God.
So we need to know “what we are in it for.”
Know that when we move from nice, courteous and superficial, that our “friend” may become our enemy as true friendship can sometimes obliterate the rules of niceness.
And, yes, in Jesus’ name.
A man I was discipling once became very frustrated as I stretched him toward growth as a man and as a Christian.
“What’s the big deal,” he said. He wanted us to be … “cordial” was his word. He didn’t realize that “cordial” was only a starting point.
Our hope of building a friendship through the discipleship process never got past the “cordial” stage.
