Mateship - a holy alliance: rediscovering covenant friendship in the contemporary Australian Church

In the classical world, friendship was revered as a public and private good, capable of producing a virtuous life and a virtuous society. Throughout the pages of Hebrew Scripture, friends are lauded as those who help us get up when we fall, who speak truth even when it hurts, and who, in the midst of trouble and despair, help us look up and hope in God. In the Gospels, we find Jesus inviting his disciples into an intimate friendship. In the story of his people, the Church, those who follow Jesus find themselves friends of God, tasked with inviting others to share in friendship with Jesus and his people. Scripture, it would seem, holds a high view of friendship - its power to transform and to save.