Friends, Let Us Love Each Other
Music by Ron KlusmeierWords by Walter Farquharson
Tune Name: CHRISTIE
Lyrics as Poetry
Friends let us love each other.
Love is a gift God gives.
Friends, by the love within us
our world will know God lives.
Love is the gift most precious
of all God offers each day.
We find our life in loving.
That’s our Creator’s way.
Love is what Christ commanded,
love lived day by day.
Love bears another’s burden.
Love walks a tender way.
Friends let us love each other.
Love is the gift God gives.
Friends, by the love within us
our world will know God lives.
Words by
Walter FarquharsonCopyright © 1975 by Walter Farquharson
Administered by Hope Publishing Company
Carol Stream, Illinois • USA
Audio Sample for "Friends, Let Us Love Each Other" (choral anthem version)
AUDIO RECORDING ABOVE
Scripture References
- John 13:34-35
- John 15:1-17
- John 15:9-17
- John 15:12
- John 15:17
- John 19:25-27
- Romans 13:8-10
- Galatians 5:14
- 1 Peter 1:22
- 1 John 3:11
- 1 John 3:23
- 1 John 4:7
- 1 John 4:7-12
- 1 John 4:11-12
Season, Theme
or Subject
- Challenge
- Christian∶ journey
- Discipleship
- Easter
- Friend, Friendship
- God∶ love of
- Lent
- Love∶ God's
- Love∶ human love
- Love∶ living love
- Maundy Thursday
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Choral Anthem Arrangements
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Choral Anthem: SATB Choral Parts
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Comments About Song
A Reflection by
WALTER FARQUHARSON
“You are my friends,” Jesus said. We don’t usually think of these words as being revolutionary, but they are. They turn so many understandings, and misunderstandings, of relationships upside down. They call for a different way of seeing each other, hearing each other, conversing with each other, walking with each other.
In the deepest sense friends are the ones who are there. Sometimes that means next door or living close enough that they can be ‘there’ beside you, with you, in an instant. But sometimes the obstacles of time and geography mean that just can’t happen.
My friend knows me, does not judge me, does not pity me , does not cater to me. There is distance between us. We do not own each other. There is much that seems paradoxical.
Friendship doesn’t keep score – doesn’t make a note of slights – doesn’t calculate advantage and disadvantage, marking down who owes who how much.
My friend forgives, is accepting and encouraging yet is willing to speak truths I do not want to hear. There is, between us, no need to blame, no need to excuse.
“Bear one another’s burdens,” said Paul, “and so fulfill the law of Christ. Friends walk together, in mutuality share joy and sadness, surety and confusion. Today my friend is stronger. Tomorrow it may be me who is the stronger. We walk together.
The Easter story in Luke’s Gospel tells of two friends setting out to Emmaus to be together in their confusion, perhaps to find some understandings, to name to each other what makes sense and what does not, and just to walk – and, when they choose, to talk. (You might like to read ”Let’s go for a walk” ….. and reflect on the experience of these friends, but also similar experiences from your own life.)
In the closest and most intimate relationships of life we seek the kind of friendship described in this song. “Love walks a tender way.”
I have heard people in order of ministry say that it was unprofessional for a minister to have special friends within a congregation. Yet it is clear from the gospels that Jesus, who called his disciples friends, had some who were “closer” friends than others.
The call to see each other as friends extends ever outward. It is the call to bear another’s burdens, to walk Love’s tender way. There is, for instance, not a problem of hunger or homelessness to be addressed, hidden, or solved. There is my friend who is hungry, my friend who is homeless. My friend the refugee. My friend the addict.