The architecture of friendship

I often puzzle over what friendship means, particularly in relation to fellowship. Here is my latest insight:

Fellowship is to friendship as the structural frame of a building is to the finished building.

When you look at a nicely finished building, you tend not to see its structural frame.

That frame, whether made of steel or wood, is usually covered over by all sorts of pleasantly designed finishes: paneled walls, attractive fixtures, choice carpeting. And then there are paintings adorning the walls, along with other decor.

For all of that to stand up, to resist the wind and the rain, not to mention to withstand earthquakes, you need a strong structural frame.

But you never see much of the structural frame. You see the adorned building. You experience the adorned building.

Here is my insight: friendship is that adorned building.

Fellowship, on the other hand, is the structural frame that enables the adorned building to hold together.

But friendship is the architectural ornamentation of fellowship.

Of course, by fellowship, I mean the New Testament term koinonia -- sharing things in common. This term might evoke pleasant mental images: sharing things in common. And it should.

But the essential things shared in common are the confessions of the faith: and these are usually expressed by dogmas and doctrines. For example: God is love. This is a structurally recognized principle enabling Christian fellowship.

But God is love, as a doctrine, is "only" a structural principle.

When you actually live it out -- IF you live it out -- what results is friendship.

And you need friendship to protect you from the wind and the rain.

Logos2Go

1 Corinthians 1.9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship (koinonia) of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 John 4.8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John 15.15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.