What does Friendship look like?

Have you ever tried to stop someone you loved from doing something stupid? You wanted to save them from making a terrible mistake. Moreover, to make matters worse, you could see it but they could not. No matter how much you talked, pleaded, argued, yelled, or reasoned with them, they just did not get it. I suppose all of us have been there.


That’s precisely where Paul found himself with the Galatians. In the beginning, Paul had preached the gospel and won the Galatians to Christ. He knew them well and prayed for them by name. He rejoiced in every victory won and wept over their struggles. He loved them as he would his own children and they looked to him as their spiritual father. Now the Judaisers had entered the picture. These false friends had coaxed the Galatians into adopting the practices of Judaism. Now they were on the verge of turning from the Lord. When Paul calls them to account, they get angry with him for butting in. “Who is Paul to tell us how to live? Why doesn’t he mind his own business? Leave us alone.”

Now Paul’s feelings are hurt, they are treating him like crap, I am sure we would of told them to just go and do whatever they wanted, but not Paul, he couldn’t, he loved them so much. He had spent so much time praying for them and caring for them. He reached out to them, where is we probably would of walked off and told them to get lost and don’t ever contact us again.


Galatians 4:11-16 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. 12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. 13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. 14And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor ejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. 16Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth.


Being there for your friends and family is your choice. No matter how they treat you or throw you under the bridge, do not give up on them. Keep them in your prayers. Even if you have to let them make their own mistakes, be there to pick them up. God wants us to keep His children in line with Him and His word.