Just Friends?

I heard someone use this statement on TV this evening and it stopped me in my tracks, its a statement I have heard many times before and often used myself; a statement that means that there is nothing going on between them. In short that a boy and a girl, or a man and a woman are not having a sexual relationship. Then everyone breathes a sigh of relief "Oh there just friends! Well that's all sorted then."

But there is no such thing as "just friends"; friends are there for you in your time of need, they give everything unconditionally or without expecting anything back, they are not easily offended, they get more joy out of seeing you happy or succeeding than being happy or succeeding themselves. In the relationship, no matter how deep and maybe intimate it is, there is no expectation of a sexual relationship, indeed it is on neither parties agenda. Friendship, true friendship, can never be described as "just" a friendship, it is earth shatteringly huge. It can change the way people think, change the way people live, and even completely change the world. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus demonstrated the significance of friendship with the ultimate sacrifice that changed our world. So please, lets drop this “just friends” as an escape clause when describing relationships and lets treat friendship the way it should be, with awe.  Perhaps when someone asks you if there is something going on between two people and you know the truth then perhaps the response should be: “No they are not lovers, but they are friends.”