The Importance Of Love And Friendship

INTRODUCTION

Love and friendship is one of the topics that has been treated widely by various scholars such as theologians, philosophers, poets and novelists. This wide interest in the theme of love and friendship shows its importance for the human existence. In our postmodern world, love and friendship have taken on new meanings. The notion of sacrifice, which is an integral part of mutual love and friendship, seems to have been lost. The adage, “each one for himself and God for us all” seems to be the guiding principle of most love and friendship relationships.

This new way of practicing love and friendship, have not only infiltrated our societies but it has also entered into Christian communities and churches. Even in our Christian communities where mutual love and friendship is supposed to be the basis of Christian living, the common tendency today is to have love and friendship relationships between people of the same social standings, races, and professions. Even some church leaders sometimes fall victims of this way of practicing love and friendship relationship. In this situation where the important value of mutual love and friendship seem to be

Jn 13-17 is delimited by an inclusio created by the use of the word “love” (αγαπη/αγαπαω). An inclusio is a literary device where words or concepts are repeated at the beginning and the end of a pericope. There are three inclusios in the Upper Room Discourse all of which relate to the theme of love. The general inclusio begins with “Jesus’ love for the disciples as the motivating factor in his discussion (Jn 13, 1) and ends with a record of Jesus’ prayer that his love would be expressed in his disciples (Jn 17, 26).” The first inner love inclusio (Jn 13, 34-15, 17) emphasizes Jesus’ command to love one another, while the second inner inclusio (Jn 13, 35 -15, 8) stresses the importance of love with regard to fruit