The same heart
Sacrifice sits at the heart of all authentic relationships. When we enter a relationship primarily for what we can get out of it, we build on the wrong foundations. This statement about Jonathan ‘loving David as himself’ resonates with the call of Paul to the Corinthians in the 13th chapter, as he affirms that ‘love is not self-seeking’.
But here’s a question I’ve been pondering? Why did this unlikely friendship (between a crown Prince and ex-shepherd/musician) spring up anyway? What was the key factor that drew them together so quickly into a friendship of such depth? I have come to believe that they were joined in heart because they were similar in heart - and the key attitude that was common to them both was their faith and wild trust in God. As he went into a skirmish against the Philistines (with only his armour bearer at his side) he said ‘Perhaps the Lord will help us. If he does, it won’t matter how many or how few of us there are. That won’t keep the Lord from saving us.”(1 Samuel 14:6-7).
The same attitude enabled David to announce to the towering Goliath: ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied’. (1 Samuel 17: 45, NIV). Both these men had a trust in God that was far more than talk - they put their necks on the line, quite literally, because of that trust.
I’m not saying that we should only have deep friendships with other Christians. But we all do need friends, not only to laugh with, but to weep, pray and trust God with.