Sometime back I was listening to a worship song, and in the lyrics they referred to Jesus as the friend of sinners. While the rest of the song was quite beautiful, the truth is that one cannot live in sin and be a friend of God. Many times people confuse this in the Bible with the fact that Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors, however when He was with those people He wasn’t just hanging out, He was preaching the Gospel to them.
Jesus said in John 15:14:
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
A person is Jesus’ friend when he or she is obeying Him. No one can be Christ’s friend so long as they are living in sin. If we want to be God’s friend, we have to turn away from the things which displease Him. If there’s a sin you are struggling to turn away from, you don’t have to be discouraged. You can confess it to God and pray and/or fast for Him to give you strength to stop doing it. If you are willfully choosing to commit that sin then you first need to stop doing it and then return to God. True repentance is not only confessing sin, but also forsaking it. -Jolie Harris
