The term ‘friend’ today has a wide range of meanings. If you ‘friend’ someone on Facebook, you will be able to see each other’s comments, etc., but you can just as easily unfriend that person for any trivial reason. Some boast of how many friends they have on Facebook. However, this would be the loosest use of the term possible. From that base level, there is a wide spectrum of use of that term. Try to name at least one for each classification.
- Acquaintances
These would be like your neighbor whose name you know and maybe their job, or someone you chitchat with at the library, coffee shop, or at your job. You don’t make firm plans to see each other, although you might be neighborly.
- Casual Friends
With friends of this sort, you socialize and talk about colleagues, maybe a job change, or noteworthy events, but you don’t reveal your deepest secrets. Your casual friends are tied to your hobby, profession, and occasionally coffee or lunch.
- Utility Friends
These friendships are based on both parties receiving help from each other in some way. They might be business partners that share financial interests but disagree in various other areas. They are common and regular, but they can be impermanent and change over time.
- Mentor/Coach Friends
These are the individuals with whom you share private information but only to enable them to better help you improve in an important area of your life.
- Close Friends
These have earned a VIP pass to your heart. You feel genuine affection and concern for each other, therefore spend hours with each other nearly every week. They are friends with whom you openly discuss personal matters, dreams, and fears. They know your quirks, favorite ice cream flavor, and do vacation with you. They are like co-pilots on your life journey.
- Intimate Friends
These are your few soulmates of friendship—the ones who know the secrets within your heart. Your shared trust enables you to freely share everything. You are with them every free opportunity and you talk about anything and everything. They’ve seen you at both your highest and lowest points. Solomon describes them when he wrote, there are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24, NLT2). The Bible tells us Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God (James 2:23, ESV). His belief in God was seen in how he took the huge risk of packing up all his belongings, leaving his hometown and friends, and headed east to a city that didn’t even have a name! It was also seen in his willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.
I’ve shared this so I can ask this question for you to ponder. In real time, where might you classify your relationship with God? You see, it is within the context of intimate friendship that transformation occurs. It is through authentically living out this relationship we become more like Him. You cannot become like Him just by attending church, seminars, or mission trips, as important as those opportunities are. It is absolutely true, without that relationship, all a person has is religion. I can tell you from personal experience, a continued intimate relationship with Him is without an equal. You then know deep within that it is well with your soul. It will provide you with the greatest sense of well-being possible on this planet earth.
Thank you for this timely reminder of my need of that intimate relationship with The Lord Jesus!