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

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Spiritual Friendship

ought to be derived from the words of the Lord, who ordained that even death itself should not be avoided on behalf of friends. However, lest we have to agree that some shameful individuals, who so esteem each other that they are willing to die for each other, have reached the pinnacle of friendship, I explained that sort of persons among whom friendship is able to arise and be perfected. After that, we came to the opinion that those who believe friendship should be avoided because of its many concerns and cares must be convicted of folly. Finally, we unraveled— as briefly as we could—the question of what sorts of friendships ought to be avoided by good people generally. 69. And so from this we can see the certain and true goal of spiritual friendship: that is, nothing should be denied to a friend, and anything should be undertaken for a friend, even to the point at which we must lay down our life for our friend—a sacrifice ordained by divine authority ( John 15:13 ). Therefore, since the life of the soul is far more important than the life of the body, I believe that only this one thing should be denied to a friend: that which causes the death of the soul, which is nothing other than sin—that which separates God from the soul and the soul from life. But in these matters the questions of what favors should be showed to a friend, what should be endured for a friend, what mode of friendship ought to be preserved, what care observed in friendship—we do not have the time to settle now.