Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics Summary and Analysis
by Aristotle
Book Nine
Section 1:
Conflicts often arise in friendship because on of the parties does not get what he desires out of the friendship, usually when one person thinks that what he is receiving is not of equal worth to what he is giving. Yet who is to decide the worth of what is given or received? In friendships according to virtue, things are given for the sake of the receiver and the return is made according to intention, though it is not necessary of equal value. Yet in other friendships in which things are given with an expectation of return, the best measure seems to be what both parties decide to be fair.
Section 2:
As a general rule, people should repay debts before giving to their friends, unless the amount used to pay the debt is need for a noble and urgent cause. The repayment that one should make depends on the nature of the relationship between the two parties. For example, honor should be given to parents, but not as much as to the gods.
Section 3:
Should a friendship end when one of the friends changes in character or thought? In friendship according to usefulness or pleasure, it is reasonable to end the friendship when one of the two people changes such that the relationship is no longer useful or pleasurable. If a good man befriends someone on the assumption that this person is good but he turns out to be evil, he should not immediately break off the friendship. First he should try to help the friend correct his character. Yet if the other friend is beyond correction, it fine to end the friendship. If one friend grows far superior to the other in character and virtue, there will no longer be a basis for genuine friendship, but the superior friend should maintain a certain regard for the other as a remembrance of earlier intimacy.
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Matthew 10:24-39
New International Version
(NIV)
24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.[a] 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[b]
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[b]
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
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