It is easy to fall victim to the idea of how infinitely small we are in a world of billion people. Yet, we are reminded of our existence through the relationships we build with other. There are different kind of relationship but friendship is one of the most important kind of relationship. In “ friendship, the Bible and the confessions”, philosophers like Aristotle, Augustine, and Jesus express different view of friendship. We analysis companionship from Aristotle perspective, from God’s perspective and from Augustine perspective. In each person case, the abstract of friendship are equivalent to a act that requires sacrificed , true love, honesty, and a mixture of everything that essential the successful wellbeing of a person. The characteristics of a true friendship is not based on materialistic things. In addition, some ways that an individual can establish a true friendship is through loyalty sacrifice, and love.
Friendship is based on the simple rules of honesty and dependability. The obligations of a good friend is to put other needs before theirs. The idea of friendship is the responsibility to love someone endlessly. A famous philosopher Aristotle stated that “ the young need friends to keep them from error. The old need friends to care for them and support the actions that fail because of weakness” ( friendship pg 119). A true friend is a person you can always count on when you are facing challenges and serious problems. In addition, the friendships we immerse ourselves into define our quality because the people we tend to associated with have similar characteristics like us. People tend to have friendships that are more goal oriented, and less intimate. For example, people seek friends that are capable of being loyal and honesty because friendship is a universal and very satisfying experience that requires a lot of commitment. According to Aristotle “ an excellent person is both pleasant and useful, he does not become a friend to a superior unless the superior is also superior in virtue”( friendship pg. 126).True friendship is having the ability to humble yourself. The ability to make decision that will respect your friends personal values and beliefs. It is also being on the same levels and sharing similar value such as physical attraction, certain style, and personality.
Aristotle’s perspective of friendship is very different from Jesus and Augustine. Aristotle ideas of friendship are based on virtue, being on the same level, and identify your responsibility as a good friend. His idea of friendship is the concerned of understanding human nature and satisfying other desire for pleasure. According to Aristotle people build their friendship on utility, pleasure, and having someone that they can use for their own benefit. He stated that ” those who exchange utility rather than pleasure in their erotic relations are friends to a lesser extent and less enduring friends”( pg.123). A true friendship is not base on how you can benefit.
Furthermore, the word “friendship”, is describe as laying down your life for another person and having an unbroken bond with someone. It mean going beyond your comfort zone for the well-being of another’s person. Having companionship, and love. The ideas of a true friendship is nothing less than giving up everything and trusting without doubt. Jesus is the pure example of a true friend, He give us the definition of true friendship by laying down is life for his ‘friends.’ In the book of john it stated that “ greater love has no man than, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I commands” ( pg. John 15:13). Jesus show the quality of a true friend by offering his love towards friends while they were yet sinners. Additionally, Jesus willingly sacrifice his lives for the love and affection he have for his friends. Jesus chosen to give himself as a living sacrifice for his friends was not obligatory but it was his ways of providing that true friendship requires one to love deep down from the heart . The act of sacrificing your life for another is the abilities to love endlessly.
Contrast to Aristotle ideas of friendship; Jesus went beyond the earthly concerned of friendship. He define friendship beyond human Wisdom. Jesus speaks of friendship as the act of nurturing, healing, and restoring someone else. It is the act of preparing someone for the afterlife. It is necessary and wonderful to have friends. Some of the reason to have a mature friend is that they are supposed to be the support system that will encourage, comfort, and celebrate with you. Being a good Friends is supposed to be driving for the higher good with your friends and playing an extremely important role in their life. Being a friend is basically being available, understanding, offering a shoulder to cry when necessary. friendship doesn’t require a person to lose their true self. A true friendship with actually encourages their partners to build a connection with God. Jesus asked to be our friends by sacrificing his life, in other to accept his offered, we have to be emotionally and knowledge wise. To build a friendship with Jesus we ought to be able to connect with him. We ought to share common knowledge with him. In Bible, it stated that ”A friend can easily guide you towards understanding the subject matter better as he or she is often on the same page as you.
Moreover, friendship is very important in society. The people we associated with define our quality because they have similar characteristics that we possess. Friendship is one of the unique part of life that assist people with gaining good qualities such as trustworthiness, honesty, dependability, and responsibility. It also show people how to interact positively with society. Friendship often provide people with peace of mind because knowing that they have others to turn to for support when dealing with difficult situations can bring satisfaction and joy . However, though friendships are fairly easy to first develop, they are sometimes a challenge to sustain. Many bad friendship can have negative impact on people life’s and often, it can also lead to destruction of friendships. The negative influences of friends can sometimes be causes by seeking for pleasure and companionship. In the confession, Augustine stated that ” O friendship too unfriendly! Unfathomable seduce of the mind, agreed to do harm for fun and sport” ( pg 34) Augustin’s admitted that some friends can be a weapon used to destroy you if you are desperate to fit in. He talked about the common good and how it is easy to immense into an unhealthy friendship. The mentality of having free will in a friendship extends to being capable of loving another unconditionally. It is not lowering your Standard in other to be accepted by another.
, the concept of friendship has always circulated in society. Finding a friend is a acting that occurred easily but building a lasting friendship required a lot of time and commitment. After analyzing all the different quality of Friendship I have come to understand that being a good friend or being in a friendship is a special thing. It is easy to find friends who will use you for what you have and not value your time and appreciate your worth, and it can also be hard to find real friends who you can always count on and friends who can always be there for you. A friend doesn’t always have to be a person you just met or a person you grew up with, a friend can also be a family member that has always been there for you and never failed to disappoint you or left you questioning your friendship. When you have the right friend your able to be yourself and be comfortable around and not try to be something that your not to impress them. A real friend would laugh at your jokes even if they aren’t funny, help you without questioning you, protect you, counselor you and make sure that your always good, it’s not a real friendship if you can’t be yourself around them or if you always have to lie to impress them. Friendship is like being in a committed relationship with a partner, there is trust, loyalty, love, time, and effort, without that then there is no real friendship in it. I’m not saying that the friendship have to be perfect.
There is something that people must understand about having friends, people should know that having many friends doesn’t make you a cooler person, and having less friends doesn’t make you a loser either it doesn’t matter how many friends a person should but it’s also great to pick your friends wisely. There are different types of friendship, acquaintance, friend, close friend and best friend the level of friendship, acquaintance are easy enough to categorize, Friends are the ones we try to run into or mix with, they are usually the ones that you can hangout with, spend time with and the ones that you tend to socialize with on a regular basis. When going to rough times you reach out to a close friend, they are people who you can trade secrets with, there’s not just a strong level of trust between these friends but there is also a whole lot of unconditional regard and affinity, sometimes these close friends can make poor decision or might not like there choices but we always stand by them anyways and defend their right to make them. And lastly but not least there is a best friend.
Bestfriends are phenomenon, they are the type of people that we need to have in our lives and the kind of friend who gets you and the without having to explain yourself. A best friend is someone that love you unconditionally, you don’t have to talk to them everyday to show that you care about them, you might go days, weeks or months without talking to them or having any sort of connection with them but at some point you reconnect as if no time has passed at all. Even if life temporarily gets in the way they are always heart-heart or soul friends and they can give you comfort even if you are out of touch with this friend. Society today play a big role on social media , people usually get confused about their friend status , all the followers on FB friends, instagram , etc. are not all going to even be true friend candidates because you’ll probably have very little in common and aren’t people that you can talk to everyday or might not even ever meet in person and probably couldn’t even call them for much support.
