Critic – You suck. Period.
Acquaintance – Distant or social relationship.
Friend – Tells you when you suck with love and empathy.
Accomplice – Enables your stupid ideas.
Short story from 2 Samuel 13:
This guy Absolom has a beautiful sister named Tamar. He also has a half-brother named Amnon. Amnon is mentally twisted and wants to have sex with his half-sister Tamar. He knows this is wrong, but he is determined to make it happen.
Amnon has a friend named Jonadab. Now, Jonadab is known to be one of those greasy, cunning kind of guys. Instead of keeping him from doing this wickedness, he devises a plan to get Amnon and Tamar together alone. Sure enough, it works. Amnon pretends to be sick and asks for Tamar to come feed him. When she arrives, he clears everyone from his house. In short order, he rapes his half-sister and then kicks her out.
When Absolom finds out what was done to his sister, he is so mad he devises a plan to kill Amnon. It takes two years, but Absolom completes the plan and murders his half-brother for what he did to Tamar.
This is a sad story… but do you notice who walks away without a scratch? Jonadab.
Critics and acquaintances are a dime-a-dozen.
Real friends are a blessing and they are rare.
An accomplice is like a cancer.
We will encounter all four. We can learn and grow from all except the accomplice. If you have a really stupid idea, you need honesty, not someone to help you do it.