A psychologist once quipped, “We are the average of the five people we are closest to.”
Average us…average Joes…no more than bits and pieces of all the people we spend the most time with.
If that’s true, then we need to look at our friends and see what part of them has rubbed off on us. Next comes the big question: Do we like what we see in us that’s come from them? Is it God-type stuff, or is it the type we need to flush away and then shower afterwards?
Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles, ran with an above average crowd. Each time we read of him, he is named with the apostle Philip. The book of Acts tells us he witnessed the ascension of Jesus. He has been identified as Nathaniel in the book of John where he is introduced as a friend of Philip’s.
Jesus states: “Here is a man in whom there is no deception.”
Those are high words of praise from a man who had the highest ideals of all time. Think about Jesus’ words as we look back to our opening sentence: “We are the average of the five people we are closest to.”
Matthew 10:3 groups Bartholomew with this crowd:
“Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus…”
Mark 3:18 gives us this list:
“Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot…”
Luke 6:14 lines up some not-so-average Joes:
“Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew...”
Acts 1:13 emphasizes the continuing strength of their bond:
“[Those present were] Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James...”
Bartholomew would have disappeared into the annals of history, never remembered, if he’d chosen a different crowd. He became an average of the men he spent time with. He chose a good crowd, and we remember him today as “a man in whom there is no deception.”
How will history remember us?
When we run with Jesus, we become like Jesus.
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