Friends

When God breathed into Adam, it was not just air molecules that entered him. God's Spirit created a soul (life) in him. When he ate of the forbidden fruit, he became aware of being naked. Something, or rather Someone had left him. God had said he would die on the day he ate of it and that is exactly what happened. Separation from God is spiritual death. For Adam and Eve to be clothed, an animal had to die (Genesis 3:21). The first human being to die physically was Abel who was murdered in cold blood by his brother Cain, the first born (Genesis 4:5-8).

Making man in his own image was very close to God "cloning" himself. If he wanted to go a step further, he would have to become a man himself. Friendship was what he had in mind with humans. It was also Jesus' aim as John clearly describes in chapters 12 to 17 of his gospel, John 15:15 in particular. Enoch and Noah "walked" with God (Genesis 5:24; 6:9), Abraham was called God's friend (James 2:23) and the Lord spoke to Moses as to a friend (Exodus 33:11).

One of the cornerstones of friendship is trust. Adam and Eve did not regard their Creator Friend as completely trustworthy. If they had, they would have believed him when he warned them against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Peter denied Jesus because he was scared witless. But would Judas betray him if he believed that Jesus had his best interest at heart? Faith is based on trust and all the above-mentioned friends of God are named in Hebrews 11, the "hall of fame of faith heroes".

A lack of trust is probably the most common reason why friendships falter and break up. This is most disturbing in the case of a man and woman who had promised one another whole-hearted faithfulness in marriage. True friendship in a Christian couple is the closest we earthlings can get to the kind of relationship God intends for humans with himself (Ephesians 5:31-32; Revelation 21:1-4).

Throughout the ages God's friends have approached him with animal sacrifices. Jesus commanded his friends to break bread in remembrance of him. Jesus was called a friend of sinners but was, and still is the ultimate example of a true friend (John 15:13).