Friendship

“Christ has come according to the power given Him from the Almighty Father, and has summoned people to friendship, blessing, repentance, and dwelling together…we should regard our fellow Christians—as friends, since each of us has become a friend of Christ.  It is perhaps significant that the same Saint John who reported that Christ called the disciples His friends in John 15:15 also used the term to describe Christians [3 John 14]—it is because Christ has made us His friends that we have friendship and loyalty with one other.  And we have become Christ’s friends because He has revealed to us the mystery of His salvation and risen power. (St. Justin Martyr, Fr. Lawrence Farley)

“Man has no greater friend than God, and God Himself wants to be man’s friend. According to the scriptures, the very purpose of the coming of Christ was to dispel all enmity between God and man, and to establish the co-working of Creator and creature in the fellowship of friendship.” (Father Thomas Hopko)

“A true friendship needs depth and time to mature. Then much care must be taken to maintain and preserve it…True friendship is a form of love, founded on knowledge in depth, on affinities of taste and ideas, and the ability to listen and give help…friendships help to satisfy the neediness we have in common as finite creatures and social animals. If we were gods and entirely self-sufficient, we might be able to do without friends. But we are not gods and so we need friends in order to flourish and be happy. Ironically, this neediness, which is sometimes mistakenly thought of as weakness, is the soil in which the mutuality and reciprocity of friendship grows.” (Jean-Claude Larchet, Vigen Guroian)

“Hurt is so much a part of being in a relationship that it is difficult for many of us to open ourselves to others. We may even question whether it is worth all the trouble and effort. Friendship is a risk many of us don’t wish to take…being a true friend to someone can also be quite difficult. People normally have so many personal agendas, needs, and expectations that the friendship given or received is usually conditional. Consequently, the sensitivity needed for true friendship is frequently distorted by a sea of conditions, prejudices, demands, and personal insecurities.…friends are not only important for support, but are also necessary for psychological and spiritual growth—if you will, for holiness.” (Robert J. Wicks)

“…we begin to become heroes simply by being friends, by being loyal to each other through the trials that afflict us and holding tight to the things and people that are worthy of love.” (Philip Ryken)

“We are to make friends with God….Remain constantly before His face, think of Him, remember Him in your heart. Otherwise, if you only meet Him from time to time, you risk losing your close friendship with Him.” (St. John Chrysostom, St. Isaac the Syrian)

“We need to feel Christ as our friend. He is our friend. He confirms this Himself when He says: “You are my friends…” (John 15:14). We need to look at Him and approach Him as a friend. Do we fall? Do we sin? We should run to Him with feelings of familiarity, in love and trust; not in fear of punishment but in courage granted by the sense of friendship. And say to Him: “Lord, I did it, I fell, forgive me.” (St. Porphyrios the Kapsokalivite)

“Friendship with God is possible. It is actually something God desires for us and Himself. Christ made a point to tell His Disciples that they ceased being His servants and had now become His friends (John 15:15). Furthermore, He told them that He had chosen them (John 15:16). In other words, He initiated the relationship and that their friendship was expressed, was proven, by them doing what He commanded (John 15:14), which was to love one another (John 15:17) as He had loved them (John 15:12). Loving others in relationships, especially our friends because we choose friendship like God chooses us, is to be friends with God.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)

“Warm friends represent the incarnational love of God in our lives.” (Robert J. Wicks) “A true friend prays to God for his friend. A true friend cares about the salvation of a friend’s soul. To draw a friend back from false ways and set him on the true path—that is a precious friendship.” (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

“Friendship is higher than servanthood. Servants obey their masters out of fear or a sense of duty; friends obey out of love and an internal desire to do what is good and right. Abraham was called a"friend of God” (Jam 2:23) because he obeyed God out of the belief of his heart. The disciples, and indeed all the saints, are honored as friends of Christ because they freely obey His commandments out of love. Those who have this spirit of loving obedience are open to receive and understand the revelations of the Father.” (Orthodox Study Bible, John 15:14-15)

“The very idea that we humans can have intimate friendship with God seems questionable for several reasons. There is God’s"otherness” and His incalculable power to create and sustain the universe, which dwarfs even the greatest of man’s collective powers. God’s knowledge overshadows all that our race has learned, for there are infinite questions that none of us can answer. Above all, our sinful lives are a scandal before the absolute purity and holiness of God. And yet, in order to have fellowship with us, the Lord of creation allowed Himself to be judged by a Roman procurator. He was delivered up to crucifixion of His own free will, saying to His heavenly Father,"Forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Lk 23:34).” (OCPM 12/22/2015)

“C. S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend’s personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of his first friend that was otherwise invisible....If it takes a community to know an ordinary human being, how much more necessary would it be to get to know Jesus alongside others? By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived.” (Pastor Timothy Keller)

"What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it." (C. S. Lewis)

“When God gives a friend, he is entrusting us with the care of another’s heart…Our friendships flow in the deep waters of the heart where God dwells and transformation takes place.” (John and Stasi Eldredge)

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