Love your Friends

 

The hardest people to witness to are those whom you know best, the ones that are close to you – family and friends. But what kind of friend would you be if you don’t share your Christian walk with your friends? Friends don’t let friends go to hell.

Reaching out to friends is just as important as your outreach to strangers. You are already in a relationship; the friendship has been long established, and you’ve shared a lot over the years, yet somehow you haven’t shared the message of Christ with them and have not been open about your spiritual journey.

Your desire to help your friends grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus must far outweigh any inconvenience or awkwardness you may encounter. There comes a time when you need to change the conversation, you’ve built the bridge of friendship, now cross it – cross over into a new dimension of the relationship.

Crossing that bridge assists in bridging the gap that your friends may be experiencing between themselves and Jesus; but how are you to know if you don’t venture into that area of their lives?

Jesus said that we must “go” (Matthew 28:19-20) however, many of us prefer persons to “come”, come to us on our terms. But it’s not about us, it’s about their salvation.

No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends. (John 15:13 AMPC)

As followers of Jesus, He calls on us to lay down our lives by not letting selfishness or pride be our guide; we are to be humble, and honour others more than ourselves and not be interested only in our own lives, but care about the lives of others too (ref. Philippians 2:3-4).

You lay down your life by emulating His love, the abiding love of Jesus in you that flows out from your relationship with Him, however, if you are not truly in relationship with Christ, then you won’t be willing to “lay down” your life for your friends.

Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. (John 15:4 AMPC)

You are to bear the fruit of love that comes from abiding in Jesus. There’s a song that says, “They will know we are Christians by our love”, love that identifies you as Christian. Can your friends identify you as a follower of Christ by your love?

Christian love is not to be contained within the walls of the church and is certainly not a grand performative gesture to be displayed in front of your fellow church members, it is meant to be an outward expression of genuine love and care and kindness and much more (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1, 3 NLT)

If you don’t love your friends enough to care about their spiritual well-being by sharing with them the Gospel of Christ, then they would gain nothing and you would have gained nothing.

Beloved, you cannot continue hoping that your friends will somehow “catch” Christianity, like how you “catch” a cold. Give them the same opportunity that was given to you to live their best life ever by becoming a follower of Jesus.

Amen †

 

Shelley Johnson “Love your Friends” ©2026 April 30, 2026