The Men of Iron Minute

by Ryan Zook | Curriculum & Content Developer

Chose Your Friends Carefully

“You are miserable comforters, all of you!”  

Job said this to his “friends” in the book of Job, Chapter 16.  

The story of Job is strange. I’m not too fond of it. Job loses his family, possessions, even his home, and everything that means anything to him. Shortly after his life burns down, he is grief-stricken, literally lying in the ashes of his life. Job’s friends sit with him silently in those ashes for seven days and nights.  

If you stop there, you would assume that Job was blessed with some of the best friends the world could provide. But there’s a problem: Job’s friends do not believe in God. Or at least they don’t believe the right things about God.  

Once Job’s friends start to speak, we walk through roughly 40 chapters of their false teaching. It’s exhausting. Job’s friends believe that God sends bad things to bad people and good things to good people.  

But that’s not true. That’s not who God is and not what God does. Great things happen to bad people. Awful things happen to good people. God is not God based on our circumstances.  

If Job had listened to his friends, he would have moved away from the true God toward something else entirely. 

Choose your close friends carefully. We all need men in our lives who bring us closer to Jesus. 

If you want to know more about how to be a good friend or how to find a good friend, check out our FREE video series, A Man’s Friends. 

John Chapter 1 has another much shorter story of friendship. Jesus calls Philip to be one of his disciples. Philip accepts the invitation and immediately invites his friend Nathaneal along for the journey. Nathaneal resists. It was not an easy invitation. The conversation was awkward. Nathaneal, at first, wasn’t into it.  

Nathaneal finally knew God and knew his purpose just because a friend led him to Jesus. That was what his life needed. Nathaneal went on to spend most of his life leading people to Jesus. We can all be thankful that he had a good friend. 

Find friends that lead you to Jesus.

Lead your friends to Jesus.

It might feel strange, but it’s what we all need.   

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