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“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no-one to help him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
A life coach and Global CEO of Youth Arise Organization, Mr. Moses Baffour Awuah speaks on relationship in this manner, “Relationships are like bank treasury. Everyday you communicate with one another you are saving, when you participate in the event of your friend’s life you are saving, when you exchange pleasantries, you are saving, when you help someone at the point of his or her needs you are saving. When you are in need one day, it will not be difficult to withdraw. Never wait until you have a problem before you look for friends”
These words of Mr. Moses really mean a lot. Friendship is social investment. When you participate in the life of friends, you are saving. Mr. Moses is an inspirational speaker who has helped in training the minds of young people in Ghana and Africa on leadership, networking and relationship through the Leadership Diary Training Program (LDTP).
Friendship is an awesome relationship which must be worked out to benefit the beholders. In Friendship part II, it was stated that no man is an Island of himself, everyone has a friend and needs the support of friends. I owe you me and you owe me you.
Truth be told, until your family relatives become your friends, you will find it difficult to help them. There have been several occasions where people deny to help family members but will go all out to meet the needs of a friend. Such is the power of friendship and association. To everyone, friendship is rated high amongst other relationship under the sun. Spouses are supposed to be friends in order to make their home conducive for living. No one will deny that he spends more time with his friend than external family.
In
this article, we are going to look at certain bible cases that bring home the
point. The holy book (bible) has preview of everything in the world. That is
why certain theologians debate that there is nothing new under the sun and that
the bible contains a copy of whatever we think is new in our days.
The
bible has more stories on friendship. Both corrupt and genuine ones. Companies
that lead to destruction and those that brought everlasting blessing to both
parties.
The
first friendship to talk about is Amnon and Jonadab friendship. The story of
these men’s friendship is full of evil mindsets. Indeed, bad company corrupts
good life. Analyzing their issue (2 Samuel 13), you could tell that none of
them had good intentions. In fact, the only good part of their story was
support – Jonadab supported the desire of his friend and gave him bad counsel.
Yes!
Everyone needs backup from the colleague and he just did that for Amnon. But
the question is, was it the right thing to do as a friend?
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| But as she was feeding him, he grabbed her and demanded, "Come to bed with me, my darling sister"... since he was stronger than she was, he raped her (2 Samuel 13:11-14) |
“Go
to bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I
wound like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. You will have
her” (2 Samuel 13:5).
After
Amnon had expressed his love towards the sister to Jonadab, this was the advice
he gave to him as a friend. It was a bad counsel and Amnon chose to do
it which ended his life in the hands of Absalom (the biological brother of
Tamar).
Bad
company is worthless. Check the people around you and the kind of conversations
you’ve been having. The bible described Jonadab as a shrewd man. A person who
is artful, cunning and clever resourcefulness in practical matters. Jonadab had no good thought for his friend. It can be said that he never contributed any good thing in the life of his friend
Amnon in their days.
Some individuals are incredibly cunning, negative, and never lend support
to any decent proposal. They grow silent and unease when you sit down to
discuss life's truths with them. However, as soon as irrelevant things are
brought forward, their spirits rise. They never provide wise advice or
encouragement, but when you come up with a wonderful idea for a crime, they
raise their hands to encourage you. Jonadabs are not buddies. Even if you
might not know how to address them, you should never use the descriptor
"bad friend" to describe them since the phrase is inherently
negative.
The
right description will be that Jonadabs are characters in people in our company
that we must clear off. Thus, not
leaving their group, rather scrape the Jonadab in them as our Lord Jesus Christ
will do. But if they are adamant, not willing to refrain from their attitude,
then advise yourself concerning such relationship.
Look
around you, go through your friendship list, is there a Jonadab?
Jonathan and David friendship is another kind of relationship worthy to learn from.
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| Jonathan became one in spirit with David (1 Samuel 18:1) |
“After David had finished talking with Saul, Janathan became one in spirit with David, and had loved him as himself” (1 Samuel 18:1).
King
David in the bible before his rise to greatness was a shepherd keeping his father’s
sheep in the wilderness. He came home at one time and encountered Israel at
battle with the Philistines. With courage in the Lord, he stood before the army
of Almighty God and defeated the giant warrior of Philistines, Goliath. Instead
of receiving his reward, he was paid with hatred, jealousy and plots to kill
him by King Saul.
But
the bible says that Jonathan, son of king Saul became one in spirit with David
and loved him as himself. Both of them became friends and out of that, David
escaped all death traps, lived and got to his destiny of becoming a king of
Israel.
Saul
had a lot of evil plots to kill David but out of the mutual friendship between
Jonathan and him, its fruit of love and oneness in spirit and mind escaped him
from all traps of Saul.
A
solid and well-built friendship structured on oneness in spirit, love,
dedication to a purpose and dedication to each other, having a vision and working
together allows room for equality, protection, seeking the welfare of each
other, gives encouragement and guarantee success on every side of the
relationship.
In
our current generation, we need the David-Jonathan kind of friendship to
succeed. We need it not only in friendship but every sector of our life and
people we come into contact with. One will always need the approval and support
of others to make it in life and without Jonathan-like heart, a friendship
which brings help and support will be unstable.
Most
importantly, one thing we must realize is network. Get ready to give and help
friends every time in our relationship with them.
We
should never come to a point of avoiding people and leaving good companies
which has potential of affecting our future and destiny.
“A
friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverb
17:17).
Friendship is good and the one with good intentions from each beholder has a long-term benefit. Because of the beautiful friendship between David and Jonathan, an innocent crippled soul, Mephibosheth was given back his blessings and inheritance of his fathers.
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