That got me to thinking, What is a friend? Sometimes people say they have a lot of friends, I wonder whether they have ever considered the various kinds of friends. A wise man once said that a man is lucky to have two or three friends in a lifetime.
In the sense of the Proverb (18:24, “There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother,”) that is probably true. That Jonathan and David trust, loyalty, and die-for-you commitment comes seldom. The one you know who would drop everything and come to your cry, means everything.
But there are other true friends. People that you can pick up with after a decade or more separation and feel as at-home with as yesterday; we have a few more of those. People we remember fondly and long for, though we may not expect to see them again this side of heaven. People that you can talk about most anything with, or just sit quietly and be comfortable.
Then there are the friends that put their feet under your table and you put yours under theirs more than once. Breaking bread together forms a bond.
“Workplace acquaintances” one called them. You may not share anything with them anywhere else and even feel a bit awkward if you meet them elsewhere, but you share personal things and help one another on the job. Or, these may be PTA friends, or golfing buddies, or Rotary or Music club.
How many other types of friends are there?
Which kind do you mean when you sing, “I’ll be a Friend to Jesus?”
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:12-15).
Keith Ward