Quality Friendship

Big Idea: You don’t build a friendship of righteousness…. 

on a foundation of selfishness

Qualities of a good friend:

1.  Character

(Journal) Ruth 2:11, But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

Proverbs 11:3, The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

2.  Connection

(Journal) Ruth 2:14, And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.

Hebrews 10:24-25, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

3.  Charitable

(Journal) Ruth 2:15-16, When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”

1st John 3:17-18, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

4.  Confirmation

(Journal) Ruth 2:19, And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

Proverbs 15:22, Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

(Journal) Ruth 2:20, And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

Redeemer:  Relative who protects, pays debts, provides for family after a loss.

Next Step: Make a list of the qualities you want in a friend…. 

Then be that friend.

John 15:13, This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.