Today I looked up Greek and Hebrew words that mean the word “friend.” There are five Hebrew words listed in Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words that mean “friend,” and there are three Greek words. I am going to look at one of the Greek words today that most people are probably familiar with. It’s the word “philos.”
The word “philos” can be found 29 times in the New Testament according to Biblehub.com. It means “beloved, dear and friendly.”
In Matthew 11:19, this word is used to describe Jesus.
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”-Matthew 11:19 (BSB)
Jesus was beloved, dear, and friendly to people who were considered sinners. That word sinners is the word “hamartolos” in Greek, and it means sinful. It comes from the root word, “hamartano” which means “to miss the mark, do wrong, sin.”
I think that word for sinners would describe all of us at some point in our lives. And yet, Jesus would still be called our friend.
I love that the definition also means beloved. Later on in the New Testament, in the epistles, Paul, John, Jude and Paul all refer to us as “beloved.”
Jesus came to show us what that relationship would look like with Him.
Do you think of Jesus as your friend? Is it hard for you to imagine Him that way?
I think it helps, if we sit and meditate on Him, being our friend, and treating us the same way He treated those in the Gospel stories.
Beth Reavis 