Friendships are difficult. Sometimes it can seem as if friends are more work and pain than they're worth, with friendship challenges that we have to endure and struggle through. Life gets in the way of our well-intentioned efforts to connect. Conflicts and differences over serious issues divide us and make us think that we could never be close to a person ever again. In today's cancel culture, it's easy to give up on people and just walk away, leaving us all more isolated than before. How can we build real relationships that are life giving and pass the test of time? Bryan Loritts mines one of the Bible's least-known books for insights into how friendships can flourish even in the midst of sin and brokenness. With careful exposition and insight, he unpacks how the apostle Paul helped Philemon and Onesimus reconcile a most unlikely relationship with truth, repentance, and grace. With God's work and steadfast love, even the most painful relationships that have ruptured are not beyond the reach of forgiveness and reconciliation. Discover how friendships that are hard can be transformed into friendships that endure.
"Friendships are difficult to navigate; friendships among believers in Christ are no less difficult. They may even be more difficult as there is a level of accountability built into that friendship based on a mutual desire to live out the mandate to be like Christ. Dr. Loritts masterfully and lovingly leads us by way of careful exegesis through the powerful letter of Paul to Philemon. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to strengthen a friendship or repair a ruptured one."
Jody Moore, lead pastor of Transformation Church IE in Chino, California
"One of my deepest desires is for real, engaging, lifelong friendship. Bryan Loritts once again provides the church with a timely book on a neglected subject of critical importance, written in his characteristically engaging, easy, entertaining-while-challenging way. We know what a marriage commitment looks like-what commitment does friendship desire? Bryan shows us how deeply we all yearn for this and how we can go from 'I will' at the beginning to 'I did' at the end of our days. I've seen Bryan up close enough to see how he lives these things out. This is a book that every Christian should read, implement, and pass on."
J.D. Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
