Jul 26, 2026 · 29 min · 9 segments
Why do friendships feel harder than they should? Why can we be surrounded by people and still feel disconnected, unseen, or alone? Real relationships require more than shared interests or…
Clayton BellHostPaigeGuest
We've been looking at these ideas, these thoughts that are in our culture that seem real.
They're close to reality, but they deviate enough from what reality actually is that our lives can be taken dangerously off course if we actually follow them.
And so today we're asking the question, what does it look like to have real, not culturally created fake Christian friendships, but what do real biblical Christian friendships look like? What's a realistic level of commitment that we should have in our lives to other people inside of the church? Because the level of commitment that you have to someone is normally a result of the kind of friendship that you're in.
You can say you're friends with someone, and that word can mean a whole lot of different things.
I mean, is it just somebody that you met at work and you see occasionally? He's back.
Is it someone you're just friendly with? Is it someone you just see all the time at Target or Starbucks? To figure out the level of commitment you should have to somebody, you normally have to ask, well, what's the foundation of that friendship? The passage that Paige read to start, it's highlighting a lot of acts of friendship or functions of friendship.
But there is a verse earlier in that passage in chapter 12 of the book of Romans that sets the stage for the author, the Apostle Paul, of how he wants the Romans to think about the other people that they are in the church with.
So if we go up a couple of verses to Romans chapter 12, verse four, this is the foundation of relationship that Paul wants the Romans to have with each other.
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body.
This is not some kind of kumbaya peace and love church that this is being written to, by the way.
to each other is not being written to a group that just loved each other and always got along.
In fact, of all the churches that Paul writes letters to in the New Testament, the church in Rome at this time might've had the biggest uphill battle to actually being in, not just in the same room as people were gathering, but to actually be in interpersonal relationships with each other.
Now, the Jews were the foundation and the starting place of every New Testament church.
The church was being built on, theologically, these ideas that came from and were founded in Judaism.
We've been looking at these ideas, these thoughts that are in our culture that seem real.
They're close to reality, but they deviate enough from what reality actually is that our lives can be taken dangerously off course if we actually follow them.
And so today we're asking the question, what does it look like to have real, not culturally created fake Christian friendships, but what do real biblical Christian friendships look like? What's a realistic level of commitment that we should have in our lives to other people inside of the church? Because the level of commitment that you have to someone is normally a result of the kind of friendship that you're in.
You can say you're friends with someone, and that word can mean a whole lot of different things.
I mean, is it just somebody that you met at work and you see occasionally? He's back.
Is it someone you're just friendly with? Is it someone you just see all the time at Target or Starbucks? To figure out the level of commitment you should have to somebody, you normally have to ask, well, what's the foundation of that friendship? The passage that Paige read to start, it's highlighting a lot of acts of friendship or functions of friendship.
But there is a verse earlier in that passage in chapter 12 of the book of Romans that sets the stage for the author, the Apostle Paul, of how he wants the Romans to think about the other people that they are in the church with.
So if we go up a couple of verses to Romans chapter 12, verse four, this is the foundation of relationship that Paul wants the Romans to have with each other.
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body.
This is not some kind of kumbaya peace and love church that this is being written to, by the way.
to each other is not being written to a group that just loved each other and always got along.
In fact, of all the churches that Paul writes letters to in the New Testament, the church in Rome at this time might've had the biggest uphill battle to actually being in, not just in the same room as people were gathering, but to actually be in interpersonal relationships with each other.
Now, the Jews were the foundation and the starting place of every New Testament church.
The church was being built on, theologically, these ideas that came from and were founded in Judaism.
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