We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! -Romans 5:10 (GNT)

The word ‘friend’ is sure one which is tossed about with relative ease these days. I always understood the concept of friendship to involve an amount of time where the person has proven themselves through thought, word and deed to be worthy of the title ‘friend.’ But now, it simply involves receiving a “friend request” from a social media site and responding in the affirmative. To me, there is so much more to friendship than such a casual and occasionally thoughtless act. My friends are those who have repeatedly proven themselves to me to be trustworthy and generous with their time and concern, among other things. I don’t expect them to lay down their lives for me, even though they may know I love them and ‘have their back.’

Despite my lack of concern for God, He still cared enough about me to send His Son Jesus to suffer horribly and die on a cross for me. He loved me before I ever loved Him. We love because God first loved us. -1 John 4:19 (GNT)