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

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Spiritual Friendship

69. IVO: But what does all of this mean? Shall I say of friendship what Jesus’ friend, the Apostle John, said of love, that “God is friendship” ( 1 John 4:16 )?

“But what does all of this mean? Shall I say of

friendship what Jesus’ friend, the Apostle John, said of love, that ‘God is friendship’?”

70. AELRED: That would indeed be unusual, and it does not have any scriptural authority. However, I do not hesitate at all to ascribe to friendship that which follows from love, since (as it were) “whoever abides” in friendship “abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). This is a matter you will see more clearly when we discuss the effects and usefulness of friendship; but now, if I have exercised my poor wit enough on the question of what friendship is, let us save for another time the other matters which you have asked me to explain. 71. IVO: An excessive delay would be very bothersome to me in my eagerness to learn about friendship, but now is the time when we must go to dinner, from which we are not permitted to be absent. And not only that, but many others have burdensome expectations of you, which compel you to give them your time.