HOW TO BE A GODLY FRIEND

Do you want to know how you can be a godly friend?

I will be sharing with you 6 biblical tips to help you practically become a godly friend to those around you and to the new friends that you make.

1. Love Others With The Love Of God

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.” (1 John 5:2).

Just as much as your love for people reflects your love for God (1 John 3:10), the same goes for your love for God is a demonstration of your love for the body of Christ. When you keep the commandments of God, it showcases your love for Him, and in return, your love for God outpours and overflows onto others. They are able to experience the love of God through you. Being a godly friend means despite how others may treat you, you remain loving towards them. God’s love for us is unconditional and so should our love be so with others (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).

2. Offer Hospitality Without Complaint

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9).

Being a godly friend is manifested through your hospitality. But it goes further, it is showing hospitality without complaining. The Greek term ” without grumbling” means ‘mumbling or low speaking as a sign of displeasure’. This is the opposite of what scripture tells us we should be. Opening up your home to others could become costly, burdensome and irritating but it should be done with a cheerful spirit. Offering hospitality to others is a great way to minister to people about Jesus (Acts 18:24-26), to be blessed (1 Kings 17:7-16), and to demonstrate the love of God as a believer (Acts 16:13-15).

3. Be Of Service To Others

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10).

Gifts are not only meant to be given or received but they are to be used also. It is a disservice to not use the gifts God has freely distributed to every single one of us because that would mean that His grace towards us is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:10). Being a godly friend means you are to work with the grace God has given you, which means you are to appropriately steward the gifts and resources God has given you to help others. Don’t waste the grace of God by not allowing it to move through you, so that you can be a blessing to others.

4. Show Kindness To Others

“”Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” (Job 6:14).

Being a godly friend means you have the wisdom and discernment to know when to give advice or to simply listen when your friend is going through a hard time. It is better to show kindness through listening than to give unsolicited advice trying to fix a problem that you were never meant to fix. Job’s friends withheld their kindness from Job who was going through a very tough time, by trying to fix his problem that only God could fix. When we do this we are taking the place of God which means we forsake the fear of God. Having the fear of God as a godly friend means you trust God to work on His own timeline and therefore, you turn away from being a fixer and focus on being a listener.

5. Build Others Up

“If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:10).

Everyone needs help. When you are alone you don’t have anyone to support, help and pick you back up when you fall. You cannot do life alone, you need people around to do life with. It is a blessing to give and receive help. As a godly friend, you need to have and be an accountability partner (Matthew 18:15-20), correct each other out of the love of God to be disciplined in righteousness and not backslide in living a life of sin (Galatians 6:1). Encourage each other with your words and deeds rather than destroying each other apart. Iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), and the word of God is a double-edged sword, (Hebrews 4:12) speak His word into the lives of others around you to build each other up.

6. Have Forgiveness Towards Others

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13).

When you think of how Jesus forgave you, it should make us more generous with our forgiveness towards others. God holds back His anger towards us when we sin against Him, He is the first to make a move towards us in forgiveness whilst knowing we will sin again, and He continues to reach out for reconciliation even when we refuse again and again. Yet, we hold on to anger before we forgive the person or even when. we say we have forgiven them. We only forgive when the person apologises or promises to never do it again. We wait for the person to reach out to us first before reconciling and restoring the relationship. This is a habit we must break. As a godly friend, you must forgive others the way Jesus forgave and continues to forgive you despite your endless wrongdoings.

What have you learnt today about being a godly friend?

Comment below what you will start implementing to become a godly friend to those around you and to the new friends you make.

Stay blessed,

Divine L.