Made for Real Friendship

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Artificial intelligence has been in the headlines for a number of years now. Does humanity truly need to fear being annihilated by our own technological discoveries and creation?

I can tell you what you probably already know, first, I have no idea, and second, some very smart people seem to really have the heebie-jeebies about it all. Some other smart people are more worried about possible existential threats such as climate crisis or nuclear warfare and the like. I do know that the living God is above all of it, and is in control, and that is a great comfort.

But existential threats notwithstanding, we do live in amazing times. I love the thought that God saw fit to place me and my family in the “computer age”. I love the technology of our day, and I see it as great wealth and a gift from God. I believe we find ourselves here due to the coming of Christ. We are witnessing and benefiting from the fruit of Christ, the Seed, buried in the ground and springing forth three days later. That fruit has blossomed in a thousand ways over these last two thousand years, and I wonder if we might only be seeing the beginning of it. Yes, all of this wealth is a dangerous gift, it is not easy to navigate, and there is a dark side to it, but I have learned that this is the case with all of God’s good gifts in this world.

It is hard to keep in view what privileged people we are to draw our breath in the time we live in. Most of the existence of mankind in history past was consumed with the daily triumph of finding the next meal. I have a lovely garden here in Illinois that I enjoy working in and benefiting from, but I’m certainly not dependent on it for my family’s very survival. As much as I don’t like to admit it, Walmart is keeping us alive. And I am grateful. (Sometimes I think we are keeping Walmart alive!) Of course we know that it is the farmers that supply Walmart who are actually keeping us alive, and I do now live in a farming community, so I better make that clear 🙂

Just yesterday I was communicating with a friend five states away on my spiffy little new iPhone sitting in my air-conditioned office with a cup of hot coffee in front of me. All of us living here in the 3rd millennium AD are benefiting from some serious advancements, and we really should be very grateful.

Mankind has made some stunning achievements in technology, who can deny it? Men were created to create, and as we continue to advance in our understanding of God’s world, the creations and discoveries get more and more incredible and useful. Unlike the animal kingdom, part of what makes men and women “in the image of God” is the fact that, like our Creator, we too are able to create.

But one thing that sets us apart from our Creator is that we cannot create the stuff that makes up “life” (for lack of a better word). We can create machines that can be a huge help in so many ways, (“Hey Siri, translate this phrase into Spanish.” “Hey Siri, what is two and three quarters cups times three?” “Hey Siri, are you going to destroy the human species…?”) but we cannot create some of the most basic and fundamental needs of humanity.

One of those needs is friendship.

There are some things that only God can create, and He has created and designed you and me for friendship. We are programmed this way. Of course we can work on “creating a friendship” with another person, but we cannot create beings with whom we can experience and enjoy true friendship. The closest we come to that is having babies. Artificial intelligence will never be able to meet the need for human friendship. How does a man create that? (“Hey Siri, will you be a true and life-long friend?”) Though a man may try, he could never love a machine the way he loves his children or his wife or others within his circle of life.

But even more than human friendship, it is a deep and experienced friendship with God Himself that mankind longs for most in the core of his being. And truly, even our human relationships are not all they should be until we have a proper friendship with God.

The sin that lurks in all of us has separated us from this friendship with our Creator. When Adam and Eve chose to disobey the clear command of God, separation was inevitable. Holiness cannot abide with sin, and humanity has taken its lostness and rebellion against God to unimaginable levels, growing farther and farther away from Him. And the more we try to replace friendship with God with other things, the worse off we get. 

In an article on this topic, Jon Bloom put it this way, (In the absence of God’s friendship) people became boastful and posturing and domineering. They became overly self-conscious and deferential out of fear of what others would think. They developed an inconsolable soul-loneliness no earthly relationship could satisfy, though they tried. They developed a chronic sense that no matter what they achieved, it was never enough. They lived with a relentless shame that drove them to maintain an appearance of success in others’ eyes while hiding their dark depravity, no matter what. And when in positions of power, they learned to manipulate and use others for their own sensual pleasure as ways to enhance their self-perception as significant, alluring, and glorious. ¹

But God has not left us in our wretchedness. He conceived the plan and took the initiative to bridge this great divide separating the Holy from the profane and defiled. Jesus came to reconcile sinners back to God. The gospel has had so much impact on the world because Jesus came to make us friends of God once again.

The Word became flesh to heal the friendship destroyed in Eden, and to bring mankind back to the garden again. This is what God has been after since the Fall. The whole arc of the biblical account is the story of God the Creator being reconciled back to man, His creation. It is the story of God working out His plan to be able to dwell with men and they with Him. It is the story of God actually wanting you and me to be His friends. And He means it to be a real friendship. Jesus’ coming is God offering to you and I the gift we long for most in the core of our being. We simply must by faith receive the gift.

No, I don’t know a whole lot about the dangers of things like artificial intelligence or global pandemics or the like, though I know these are not unimportant issues. But I do believe that the greatest existential threat is not any of those things. The greatest threat is man being separated from friendship with His God, and thereby destroying himself in his pursuit of meaning and purpose.

Praise be to God, Who made us for His friendship, and Who has also given us the Way.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7

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Footnotes

1. John Bloom, “You Were Born for Friendship”, Desiring God, December 5, 2017, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/you-were-born-for-friendship