Friendships (Linton Hall)

Proverbs 17:17 CSB – A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

1 Samuel 18:1 CSB – After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.

2 Samuel 1:25-26 NIV -“How the mighty have fallen in battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
²⁶ I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.

True friends are givers, not takers.

The Inklings
Owen Barfield: British philosopher, author, poet, critic
C. S. Lewis
J. R. R. Tolkien
Charles Williams: British poet, novelist, playwright, theologian, literary critic
“The Inklings work… taken as a whole, has a significance that far outweighs any measure of popularity, amounting to a revitalisation of Christian intellectual and imaginative life.”

John 15:13-15 NIV – Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

True friends honor boundaries.

Proverbs 25:17 CSB – Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house—
too much of you, and they will hate you.

Proverbs 27:5-6CSB – Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.

True friends are exclusive.

John 19:26 CSB – When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,”