Month: April 2019

In this series of posts about GBs in The Bible, I’m providing examples of God Buddies in Scripture and explaining how their Christ-like characteristics helped transform one or both people for God’s bigger purposes. This week’s example is one of the most famous – and also one of the most controversial, relationships in the Bible: that of Jonathan and David. A King’s Son and the Giant Killer The friendship between David and Jonathan demonstrates three more important aspects of God Buddy relationships: selflessness, loyalty, and an emotional openness between men. While often misinterpreted, this relationship needs both biblical context and an understanding of how male friendships have changed over the last century. Biblical Background The story of the well-known giant slayer, David and his relationship with Jonathan, son of a not-so-great father, yet still God-appointed king of Israel, is found in the Old Testament books of Samuel. The first time

In my introduction to this series about GBs in The Bible, I suggested that Scripture provides some great examples of God Buddies (“GBs” for short). Each of the next posts in this series will explain the biblical foundation and Christ-like characteristics that helped transform one or more of the people in the story as they were used for God’s bigger purposes. I begin with more about the Apostle Paul and his companion, Barnabas who you initially learned about in my post, Three Relationships Every Man Needs. A Peer Turned Mentor The story of Paul and Barnabas demonstrates two important aspects of God Buddy relationships: doing life together with a peer, and having a mentor to help guide and teach you about what it means to be a godly man (or women, since females should also have a mentor). You may recall Paul and Barnabas traveled together to the island of