This book, by Vaughan Roberts, was a quick oh-that-looks-interesting impulse buy and was read in the spare hour or so throughout a day of revision (yeh, still exam season, hence the lack of much reading, also hence why I'm posting this two weeks late after post-exam decisions to blow off all productivity). It's excellent - very wise, very applicable, very short. It was also really cheap so I bought five copies and gave the other four to close Christian friends.
The actual book is so clear, concise, truthful and applicable that there's not much about it that I can discuss as I found it so easy to agree with. It basically looks at what ideal friendship is for a Christian's life, and how we should attain, sustain and direct it in our relationships with others. True friendship, argues Roberts, are crucial, close, careful, candid, constant and Christ-centred. He works up from the idea that social interactions are vital to human wellbeing, showing how this has been distorted in modern society with the loss of community due to work-centred lifestyles and a shift to technology as a mediator of relationships. We need to reclaim genuine friendships - not only for human wellbeing but because that's the context in which God is properly served and glorified. The Trinity is a perfect community of three; Jesus' disciples became true friends in learning to serve and sacrifice for one another; as did the apostles. The Bible is littered with great examples of friendships done right - where the key binder of the two persons is a commitment to their interests, helping them if needed, speaking honestly and lovingly to them, and ultimately encouraging them in the gospel and pointing them back to God daily.
Great little book, chock full of very biblically-informed reminders of how we're to relate to one another as Christians in true friendship.
The actual book is so clear, concise, truthful and applicable that there's not much about it that I can discuss as I found it so easy to agree with. It basically looks at what ideal friendship is for a Christian's life, and how we should attain, sustain and direct it in our relationships with others. True friendship, argues Roberts, are crucial, close, careful, candid, constant and Christ-centred. He works up from the idea that social interactions are vital to human wellbeing, showing how this has been distorted in modern society with the loss of community due to work-centred lifestyles and a shift to technology as a mediator of relationships. We need to reclaim genuine friendships - not only for human wellbeing but because that's the context in which God is properly served and glorified. The Trinity is a perfect community of three; Jesus' disciples became true friends in learning to serve and sacrifice for one another; as did the apostles. The Bible is littered with great examples of friendships done right - where the key binder of the two persons is a commitment to their interests, helping them if needed, speaking honestly and lovingly to them, and ultimately encouraging them in the gospel and pointing them back to God daily.
Great little book, chock full of very biblically-informed reminders of how we're to relate to one another as Christians in true friendship.
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