More than Friends...?
Friendship in the Body (family)
we are adopted, we are family
16 *The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God,
17 *and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him.
29 *Jesus answered, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left a house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake,
30 *who shall not receive a hundred times as much now in this age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecution, and in the age to come, eternal life.
31 *But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
We all need to treat the woman in our “family” with purity.
5:1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;
2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity
ἁγνεία, ας, ἡ (Soph., Oed. R. 864 ἁ. λόγων ἔργων τε πάντων; Pla.; ins [e.g. fr. Epidaurus in Theophr., De Pietate 9, 11, and Porphyr., Abst. 2, 19 ἁγνὸν χρὴ ναοῖο θυώδεος ἐντὸς ἰόντα ἔμμεναι· ἁγνεία δʼ ἐστὶ φρονεῖν ὅσια; ISyriaW 2034; 2203]; pap; LXX [of cultic purity]; TestJos 10:2; AscIs 3:21; EpArist, Philo, Joseph.; Mel., P. 49, 350) the quality of moral purity, purity; of a pure mind (s. ins fr. Epidaurus above; Jos., Ant. 19, 331) specif. chastity (Diod S 10, 21, 2 ἁγνεία τ. σώματος; Philo, Abr. 98 ἁ. τῆς γυναικός; Jos., Ant. 3, 78) ἐν πάσῃ ἁ, w. all propriety 1 Ti 5:2.
IT IS GOOD TO WAIT!!!
4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.