Spiritual Friendship: Learning to Be Friends with God and One Another

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Spiritual Friendship

How Spiritual Friendship Is Distinct fromOther Types of Friendship (1.36−37) 36. And in connection with this, it follows that such a person boasts in the mere name of friendship, and is deceived by something that looks like friendship, rather than depending upon the truth. It may indeed be true that a person experiences something like the pleasure of a spiritual friendship in a friendship that is either stained by desire, or made foul by greed, or rendered impure by excess; but one must infer that, however much pleasure one can derive from an inferior friendship, to the degree that the friendship is more honorable, it is also more secure, and to the degree that the friendship is more pure, it is more pleasant, and to the degree that it is freer, it is happier. 37. Still, let us grant that, because of the similarity of emotions, even those friendships which are not true may be called friendships nonetheless, despite their being distinguished by certain marks from that friendship which is spiritual and therefore true. “Fleshly Friendship” Is the First of the Three Kinds of Friendship (1.38−41) 38. So let us call one kind of friendship “fleshly” and another “worldly” and yet another “spiritual.” And fleshly friendship is created by an agreement in vices, while hope of gain spurs on worldly friendship, and similarity of character, goals, and habits in life makes for a bond of friendship among good people. 39. The true impulse to fleshly friendship comes from that state of mind which, like a prostitute, directs its footsteps after every passerby ( Ezek 16:25 ), following its