Audio Transcript
What makes for a greatest buddy? That’s the query from one listener in the present day, a buddy of ours. “Pastor John, I used to be just lately requested by a buddy of mine to elucidate your theology of friendship. I’ll say what I stated and see if I received it proper or improper. Right here’s my abstract, and I’ll allow you to approve or disapprove or appropriate this after which substantiate it as you please. Okay. I stated this. First, on this universe, Christ is of biggest price. There’s no better attainment in life or in loss of life than to know and to like him. Meaning — he means — the worth of our friendships is decided by how a lot of Christ we see in an individual and the way carefully we are able to work to share Christ to the world by that relationship.
“So, a non-Christian buddy, all about themselves, their very own self-image and success, is a lifeless finish. There’s nothing of Christ being magnified in them to us or to the world. We get nothing of Christ in them, and we can not associate to indicate Christ to the world. So, a friendship with a non-Christian is of lesser worth, past us searching for to be Christ to them — which itself is vital. Nevertheless, true Christian pals, our greatest pals, these whose lives are all about Christ and residing for his glory, are a way of us seeing Christ and receiving his grace. And with such pals, we take part collectively to indicate the value of Christ to the world, which is the very best worth and delight friendship can ever attain or expertise.
“This raises the bar on all our friendships, even the friendship we’ve with our partner too. Christ provides {our relationships} price — reflecting him to 1 one other and sharing him collectively. Pastor John, what do I get proper? What do I get improper?”
Effectively, that’s fairly weighty and wonderful. And sure, I feel I may affirm that imaginative and prescient as important to friendship and the way in which I’d take into consideration friendship. So, I’m proud of what he stated there. It would make clear the extra relational nature of friendships — or the nitty-gritty, sensible dimension of friendships — if we begin not with the nice, final values (which he did and I’m wonderful with; I like it), but additionally you may come at it with the nitty-gritty statements about friendship within the Bible. So, let’s strive that. Let’s see what occurs if we put collectively these two approaches, one from the underside up and one from the highest down.
Mates and Neighbors
Right here’s one outstanding factor in regards to the phrase “buddy” within the Previous Testomony, for instance. There’s one Hebrew phrase, re’ah, behind nearly all of the makes use of of the phrase “neighbor” and the phrase “buddy.” It’s the identical Hebrew phrase behind each. About eighty instances, the phrase re’ah is translated “neighbor,” and about thirty instances that very same phrase is translated “buddy,” and solely a tiny handful of different Hebrew phrases are translated “neighbor” or “buddy.”
“Friendship is essential for us in life and ministry.”
Now, one of many implications of that is that the Jewish individuals who spoke this Hebrew language didn’t have a peculiar phrase that they used for buddy — that’s wonderful — the way in which we do and the way in which the New Testomony does. We’ll get there in only a minute. The phrase they used most frequently for “buddy,” nearly all the time, was the identical generic phrase used for “neighbor.”
One dictionary defines re’ah as “these individuals with whom one is introduced into contact, with whom one should stay on account of circumstances of life.” Effectively, good grief, that’s about as basic as you would get. So, the generic phrase re’ah covers those that are ethnically close to you or geographically close to you or vocationally close to you or close to you due to some widespread curiosity. It’s very broad. So, our understanding of friendship because it emerges from the Previous Testomony just isn’t based mostly on the which means of a selected phrase however fairly on the character of the connection in several conditions.
Nearer Than a Neighbor
Listed below are some examples, as a result of there actually is a imaginative and prescient of friendship within the Previous Testomony, however not due to a peculiar phrase.
“Oil and fragrance make the guts glad, and the sweetness of a buddy comes from his earnest counsel” (Proverbs 27:9). So, clearly, the truth of friendship as a detailed relationship of belief and helpfulness is there. It actually existed. Or Proverbs 27:6: “Trustworthy are the injuries of a buddy; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” So right here, there’s a transparent distinction between somebody who’s close to and hostile and somebody who’s close to and pleasant. So, “buddy” is somebody who’s not solely close to you, however for you. Or Proverbs 18:24: “A person of many companions might come to break, however there’s a buddy who sticks nearer than a brother.” So right here, “buddy” is nearer than many companions, however not a organic brother, but much more dedicated to you than a brother. And Proverbs 17:17: “A buddy loves always, and a brother is born for adversity.”
So, it’s clear, I feel, that although there is no such thing as a peculiar phrase for “buddy” as distinct from “neighbor” within the Previous Testomony, the truth of a detailed, deep, sturdy bonding is clearly current within the Previous Testomony: earnest counsel, sweetness of camaraderie, devoted wounds, no enmity, nearer than a brother, trusted to be there within the worst of instances.
And like our buddy stated (who despatched on this query), in a God-besotted tradition — like Previous Testomony Judaism was at its greatest — this earnest counsel, candy camaraderie, devoted wounds, brotherly closeness, fidelity within the worst of instances, all of that is within the service of figuring out and trusting and having fun with and obeying the greatness of God. If a buddy started to take us away from devotion to God, he would by definition go from being a buddy to being an enemy.
One Who Loves
Now, right here’s what’s outstanding after we flip to the New Testomony. We simply learn in Proverbs 17:17, “A buddy loves always.” Now, in contrast to the Hebrew of the Previous Testomony, the Greek of the New Testomony doesn’t deal with “neighbor” and “buddy” with the identical phrase. It separates “buddy” and “neighbor” into two phrases. “Neighbor” picks up on the thought of nearness. That’s what plēsion means, primarily, when it’s translated “neighbor” (and that’s the phrase for “neighbor” within the New Testomony), “the one who’s close to.”
And “buddy” picks up on the thought of affection. “A buddy loves always.” About 30 of the 36 makes use of of the English phrase “buddy” within the English New Testomony are a translation of philos. Philos is a phrase relating to like. We get Philadelphia: concord, metropolis of concord. We get philosophy: love of knowledge. Buddy isn’t a translation of plēsion — “neighbor” or “the close to one.” It all the time is carrying this concept of “a buddy loves always.” So, the vocabulary of friendship within the New Testomony turns into much less geographical or spatial and extra affectional.
And right here’s a very vital illustration of that. In James 2:23, it says, “[Abraham] was known as a buddy of God.” However once you return to Isaiah 41:8 and a pair of Chronicles 20:7, that are the one two locations the place Abraham is known as God’s buddy, in each texts, the phrase “buddy” just isn’t the phrase re’ah, however the participle of the phrase love, ’āhaḇ. “The one who loves God” is the literal translation which comes over into New Testomony Greek as “the buddy of God,” as a result of the phrase “buddy” carries such connotations of affection.
Essential Companions
So, the upshot of all that is to say that, along with that massive image that our buddy painted for me — capturing the large, Godward notion of friendship — to that may be added now some particulars (put some flesh on the bones) by observing that friendship includes earnest counsel coming from one another, a sweetness of camaraderie, devoted wounds if obligatory, fidelity of being there for one another in one of the best and the worst of instances.
A buddy is exclusive in not fairly being the identical as a brother or a sister, and never being fairly the identical as a partner, however being a — what ought to we are saying? — a comrade in a shared imaginative and prescient as you pull collectively for some vital trigger. And my assumption is that the significance of this type of friendship is why Jesus all the time despatched out his emissaries — his apostles and employees — two by two, not by themselves, and why the apostle Paul all the time traveled and ministered in teams, in pals. He was very keen to not be left alone wherever. In different phrases, this type of friendship is essential for us in life and ministry.
