Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday October 20, 2010

One theme that usually brings more response than others is the subject of "Friendship" or variations of the theme. I think this is true due to the fact that most of us have very few true friends, that an even higher number have no clue as to the types of friendships presented in the Bible and history plus experience.

On Platonic relationships Webster states: "2 : a close relationship between two usually opposite-sexed persons in which an element of sexual attraction or libidinal desire has been either so suppressed or so sublimated that it is generally believed to be absent."

The biblical storge is commonly associated with Platonic but has serious differences in forming friendships as expressed in the following:

"Affection (storge, óôïñãÞ) is fondness through familiarity, especially between family members or people who have otherwise found themselves together by chance. It is described as the most natural, emotive, and widely diffused of loves: natural in that it is present without coercion; emotive because it is the result of fondness due to familiarity; and most widely diffused because it pays the least attention to those characteristics deemed "valuable" or worthy of love and, as a result, is able to transcend most discriminating factors. Ironically, its strength is also what makes it vulnerable. Affection has the appearance of being "built-in" or "ready made", says Lewis, and as a result people come to expect, even to demand, its presence—irrespective of their behavior and its natural consequences."

Strong's has it as "To cherish affectionately" with cherish meaning to brood over in the sense of a hen brooding or warming the little ones. To tenderly care for.

True agape love will have bits of these two loves active in the love we have for the brethren and for each other in marital relationships. Eros in its sexual sense is reserved for marriage.

To be certain discerning the kind, the type of love we have for someone is a lost art if mentioned at all. Camaraderie is often said to be the deepest love due to its being born of a common suffering. Yet this imagined love fades quickly when the cause of suffering is removed and those experiencing this emotion see each other with the intense light of their suffering removed.

One thing I do know about the kind of love based friendships is this statement by unknown:

"Good friends are like stars; you don't always see them, but you know they are always there."

The Roman Statesmen Cicero had it: "In doubtful times the genuine friend is known."

Solomon put it like this Proverbs 18:24:

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE