"What Are Friends For?" (Hebrews 3:12-13; 10:19-25)

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at how the Spirit of God transforms our relationships. This week, we look at the aspect of Jesus's character called "goodness" (Gal 5:22). How do we live a life where we grow in genuine goodness and integrity? The Gospel teaches us that sanctification (growth in goodness) is not a solo project. We need help from outside ourselves! We can only grow in goodness, as we walk with friends who form us in goodness. This week, we see that genuine Christlike goodness grows in the context of Christian friendships. “[There is a ] myth … of freedom… that the less encumbered and entangled I am, or the less accountable and anchored I am to a particular relationship, the better able I am to find my truest self and secure real happiness  … it’s not hard to see how this strikes at the root of friendship. If your deepest fulfillment is found in personal autonomy, then friendship … is more of a liability than an asset.” — Wesley Hill “When Jesus calls His followers to love each other just like He loves them, He’s not just going with the grain of natural friendship. He is calling people who might never have gone near each other into sacrificial-love relationships. Likewise, we should be ready to form Christian friendships with those utterly unlike us. And while sacrificial love is most associated in our minds with marriage and parenting, we need to recognize that Jesus issued His command to one-another love in the first instance to people who were one another’s friends.“— Rebecca McLaughlin “People who simply “want friends” can never make any. The very condition of having Friends is that we should want something else besides Friends … There would be nothing for the Friendship to be about; and Friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travelers."— C.S. Lewis Further Reading: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/39780-5-lessons-on-friendship-from-jesus-with-rebecca https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/5-key-truths-about-friendship-from-c-s-lewis/