I Thessalonians 5:11 Friendship Is Important
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (NIV).
According to Webster’s Dictionary, one of the definitions of “friend” is “supporter or sympathizer.” It sounds like Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians to become friends, to extend friendship to each other—to encourage each other. Paul also states that they are already doing that.
Our church is of a size that I don’t know everybody, so I am certainly not friends with everyone, but I am friendly with most of them, and it is easy to observe the comradery we have as many people come quite early for service in order to spend time talking with their friends. Our pastor sometimes experiences some difficulty in getting people to stop their conversations in order to get the church service started on time. Several times each month various groups get together for fellowship. So perhaps we are extending friendships as the Thessalonians were. I believe that Paul is speaking of a general friendship within a congregation, a comradery if you will. That’s an important characteristic for a church to have, one in which there is general agreement and a willingness to discuss areas of difference without anger, and bitterness which usually lead to the splitting of a church.
The Bible also speaks of a friend who is closer that a brother, and that is also a necessity. We each need a small group where we can be free to discuss personal problems, where we can go for help when we need it, and where we can discuss our Lord and His Word. The passage is in Proverbs 18:24: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (KJV). Many other translations give a negative tilt to the verse: “He who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (NIV). I leave it to you as to which translation makes sense to you. My focus is on the last part of the verse, “…but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Each of us needs a friend like that, perhaps several. I am blessed to have several men close to me who act as that friend closer than a brother. I am also blessed because I can call my wife my best friend. Within this small group I have support at any time in any way. Thanks you, Jesus, for giving me friends like these. I pray that you are similarly blessed. If you are not, I encourage you to pray that God will supply you with someone or some very small group with similar beliefs with whom you can share intimate details of life. We have been created to need people close to us and to need a God who is closer than any human we know. God is always there, and we need humans who are “almost” always there.
