New Life in Friendships

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“So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:17, 19 –


Friendship is a truly special yet sometimes complicated thing. As small children, friendship seems easy. As we grow, friendships tend to get more complicated. As we grow up, friendships tend to become more complicated. Sometimes a friend can do something to us that’s truly painful, or, perhaps we do something painful to a friend. It’s sadly so easy to hurt, intentionally or unintentionally, those closest to us.

Reconciliation is when two parties choose to forgive past hurt or grievance and come up with some kind of resolution in how to move forward in the relationship. According to the Bible, we were separated from God because of our sins. Though God loves everyone despite their sins, we made ourselves in enemies of God in our sin (Romans 5:10). The incredible news, the beautiful Easter message we’re preparing for in a few weeks, is that Jesus came to earth to reconcile us back to God. Jesus did nothing wrong in the relationship between God and humanity, but He wanted to be in relationship with His most precious creation. The reconciliation that Jesus demonstrates in His relationship with us is inspiring. The Apostle Paul in this letter to the Corinthians is reminding them that we too should be a reconciling people for what once was old and worn out can and has been made new.

When you find yourself in relationship with family or friends and things get hard and reconciliation needs to happen, I hope you can try to take steps towards reconciliation. I encourage you to have open conversations where you can intentionally engage whatever issue is causing your relationship strain. If you can’t find a way to move forward, then let go and move on. For instance, if you are in  relationship with someone who is regularly harming you physically or emotionally, please move on and seek help. This message is not telling you to subject yourself to that. But if you can come to an agreement of how to move forward, I hope you can be inspired by the example of Jesus to participate in reconciliation.


To Read More: Romans 5-6, Proverbs 17:17; 27:17

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