In Chapter 11 Phillips turns to the topic of men and friendship, specifically friendship between Christian men. He takes David and Jonathan as the biblical pattern and explores Jonathan's commitment to David and how he strengthens David's hand in God - in other words Jonathan exhorts and encourages David to faithfulness by reminding him of the character and glory of God. This is the sort of friendship we ought to be building and which will bear life long fruit.
It is a short chapter which is a pit because I think that this area of friendship amongst men that is committed to speaking God's word into one another's lives is increasingly a rarity in our churches. I would love to have seen Phillips draw this out a little more in terms of how we help each other fight sin, how we establish accountability with one another, and how we go about building these friendships.
However what he has to say is a breath of fresh air especially in terms of the way he approaches the friendship of David and Jonathan.
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