Friends Who Carry You to Jesus

What four friends and a crowded house in Luke 5 teach us about telling a good friend from a bad one.

The Bible is full of friendships. Jonathan and David. Ruth and Naomi. Paul and Barnabas. Some friendships last a lifetime, some fade, some show up early in life and some much later. But there's one friendship in the Gospels that stands out from the rest, and it's in Luke 5.

Jesus is teaching inside a house so packed that nobody else can get in. A group of men show up carrying their friend, a man who is paralyzed, on a mat. They can't get through the crowd. So instead of turning around, they climb up on the roof, open it up, and lower their friend down right in front of Jesus (Luke 5:17–19).

What made this friendship different? And what does it teach us about the difference between a good friend and a bad one? Here's the big idea: all of our friendships should reflect our friendship with God.

1. True friends don't give up

This story shows a clear truth: true friendships persist, even when it would be easy to quit.

Let's be honest. It's easy to walk away from a friendship. We disagree about something. We "don't have time" anymore. Our friend starts to feel "too different" from us. But most of the time, those are just excuses for not putting in the work a real friendship takes.

These men could have gone about their day. They could have seen that crowd and decided the obstacle was too big, and no one would have blamed them. Instead, they kept going. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." They literally carried their friend, no matter how hard it got.

Reflect: Think of a friendship you've given up on. What can you learn from it to be a better friend now?

2. True friends carry you when you're weary

Following Jesus can be tiring. Between school, family, pressure and everything else life throws at us, it's easy to get burnt out and overwhelmed. That's when true friends help us see things in a new way and point us in the right direction.

Imagine you were the man on that mat. Would it be easy to keep going and move forward in life? Probably not. But your friends were willing to carry you. Even that one act of courage must have given him the hope to push forward and get to Jesus.

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). True friendship takes sacrifice from both sides. One day your friend might be the one on the mat. Another day it might be you. Either way, true friends lay down their lives for each other, because a friendship that isn't built on love will eventually fall apart.

Reflect: Think about a rough moment in your life. Did friends help you through it? If not, what would a true friend have done?

3. True friends bring you closer to God

Luke 5:20 says, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.'" Notice that Jesus saw their faith. His friends brought him physically closer to Jesus, but it went deeper than that. Because of their faith, their friend was forgiven and healed.

So how do you tell a good friend from a bad one? Look at what they do when you need help. If you need accountability and they offer to help you keep a secret instead, that's not a good friend. If they keep calling, checking in and making sure you don't stumble, that's a good friend. It sounds simple, but a good friend will often lead you to do things the harder way instead of taking the easy way out.

Proverbs 12:26 says, "The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray." That's the key difference: true friends bring you toward God, and fake friends pull you away from Him.

Reflect: Have your friendships been bringing you closer to God, or pulling you farther away?

Our friendship with Jesus

In John 15, Jesus says something amazing about the people who follow Him:

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15)

Everything we saw in those friends in Luke 5, Jesus is to us, in an even greater way. He never gives up on us. He carries us when we're weary. And He is the One who brings us to the Father. Who could be a greater friend than the One who willingly gave His life so we could be saved?

The more we pursue friendship with Jesus, the more He shows us what it means to be a true friend. He is the best example we have, so in every friendship, we should do what He would do. Because one thing stays true: our relationships with others must reflect our relationship with Jesus.

Reflect: How can your friendship with Jesus grow this week, and how would that show up in your other friendships?

Before you pray

Take a minute to think about these three questions, then bring them to God:

Have I been a good friend? How can I improve?

Are there friendships pulling me away from God that I need to let go of?

What good friendships do I need to invest in more?

Go deeper: read Luke 5:17–26 and John 15:9–17 this week, and write a SOAP on the verse that stands out to you.