Well, what makes for a best friend? That's the question from one listener today, a friend of

ours. Pastor John, I was recently asked by a friend of mine to explain your theology of friendship.

I'll say what I said and see if I got it right or wrong.

Here's my summary and I'll let you approve or disapprove or correct this and then substantiate it as you please. Okay. I said this first in

this universe crisis of greatest worth there's no greater attainment in life or in

death than to know and to love him. That means. He means the value of our

friendships are determined by how much of Christ we see in a person and how closely we can

work to share Christ to the world through that relationship.

So a non-Christian friend, all about themselves, their own self-image and success, is a dead end.

There's nothing of Christ being magnified in them to us or to the world. We get nothing of Christ in them and we cannot partner to show Christ to the world. So a friendship with a non-Christian is of lesser value beyond us seeking to be Christ to them, which itself is important.

However, true Christian friends, are best friends, those whose lives are all about Christ and living for his glory are a means of us

seeing Christ and receiving His grace. And with such friends, we participate together to show the

worth of Christ to the world, which is the highest value in delight friendship can ever attain or experience.

This raises the bar on all of our friendships even the friendship we have with our spouse too.

Christ gives our relationships worth reflecting him to one another and sharing him together.

Pastor John, what do I get right? and sharing him together.

Pastor John, what do I get right? What do I get wrong?

Well, that's pretty weighty and amazing.

And yes, I think I could affirm that vision as essential to friendship and the way I would think about friendship.

So I'm happy with what he said there.

It might shed light on the more relational nature of friendships

or nitty-gritty practical dimension of friendships if we start not with the great ultimate values

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