The Company We Keep

Friendship. It’s one of the simplest of human relationships in comparison to marriage or family relationships, and yet it’s also one of the least understood and practiced. For all of our progress in making connections through Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media tools, people are consistently experiencing loneliness and growing disenchanted with the whole notion of friendship. Could it be our understanding of friendship has been more informed by pop culture and social media, and less informed by the vision of friendship offered by Scripture? Is it possible friendship exists for a greater purpose than my enjoyment and comfort? Is friendship more than just having some people to hang out with on a weekend, participating in a book club, or hitting the golf course together? These questions and more are answered in this book. Biblical friendship is first and foremost about a relationship with Jesus Christ. As you are brought into friendship and relationship with the Father, Jesus Christ calls you a friend! It is out of this friendship that our human friendships find their beginning and their purpose. Aelred, a Cistercian monk who wrote a profound treatise on friendship, writes, “And so in friendship are joined honor and charm, truth and joy, sweetness and good-will, affection and action. And all these take their beginning from Christ, advance through Christ, and are perfected in Christ.” This is the core of biblical friendship, and what sets it apart from what the world is offering: it all flows from Jesus Christ. Friendship finds its origin, purpose and power in Jesus. Our human friendships then must be shaped by this life-changing truth. Biblical friendship is deep, honest, pure, transparent, liberating…and attainable. Dig into this book, and find how your friendships can embody this amazing and wonderful truth.