Craig T. Owens

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How many friends do you have? I don’t mean your “friend count” on Facebook, because you and I both know that some of your “friends” aren’t really those people with whom you would share confidential information.

No, I mean real friends.

There were few people as well-known in his day as the apostle Paul. His missionary journeys took him all over the place. The stories he could tell about his adventures would keep an audience glued to their seats. He knew church leaders and governmental officials. He planted churches and trained pastors. If ever there was someone that would have had a full list of friends on Facebook, it would have been Paul.

Yet here’s what he writes to the church at Philippi:

I have no one else like Timothy, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 2:20-21)

Among other things, Paul says Timothy is:

• A servant (Philippians 1:1)
• Trustworthy (2:19)
• Faithful (2:20)
• Christ-focused (2:21)
• A hard worker (2:22)

Yet when Paul says. “I have no one like him,” he uses a Greek word only used once in all of Scripture. The King James Version translates this word likeminded. This word means equal in quality and quantity of soul.

In other words, of all of the people that would be considered a “friend” of Paul, only one—Timothy—did Paul call likeminded: someone who was Paul’s equal in soul.

If that type of friendship was rare for Paul, how much more so for you and me?

God may only bring one likeminded friend into your life (as He did with Paul). If you have that one likeminded friend, cherish that relationship and give God thanks for it! How blessed we are when we have a friend we can call likeminded!

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