The reason for his rich friendship is not far to seek. People knew just where they stood with him. Deceit was utterly foreign to his nature. When his friends were wrong, he told them so without mincing matters, and the closer the friend, the blunter his criticisms. Farel chafed under this plainness, but got only the reply: “I entreat you, my dear brother, when I expostulate with you, chide you, get warm with you, accuse you, that you take it all the same as if you were dealing thus with yourself.”

It was just because he was unswerving in his devotion to God that he was such a good friend. He could be severe: When Farel as an old man married, in somewhat dubious circumstances, a young girl, Calvin refused to have anything more to do with him (though on his deathbed he forgave him, wrote to him, and they met once more).But on the other hand, he would give himself any trouble to help someone. It might be one of his friends’ relatives sick of the plague; he would visit him, regardless of his own safety. It might be an old woman who did not want to be left in Strassburg when her pastor had gone back to Geneva; he wrote to Viret to find her a house in the city. It may be a sick man that he sends to his good friend the manager of the hospital. His friends knew that there was more in him than peevishness and difficulty.

For his part, he was a man who could not live without friendship and was dependent on the kindness of others. He wrote pathetically to Farel: “I beg and entreat you to alleviate the irksomeness of my present situation with long and frequent letters; for unless my weariness can be refreshed by the comfort of friendship, I shall be utterly in darkness.”

-“Portrait of Calvin” by T.H.L. Parker

It’s really cool for me to read about the man that I was named after. What stands out to me about this passage is that Calvin is unswervingly serious about the truth, to the point of offense at times. At the same time, he is unswervingly serious about loving those around him, to the point of great cost to himself. Of course, Calvin wasn’t perfect, he needed his friends (awwwwwww). But I do see here how he lived to honor Christ.