Human beings are social animals and cannot live alone. People need familial ties, love, and friendship.
A soul without friends feels very lonely. So friendship is a gift from God so that people can enjoy each other's company and become lifelong friends.
Friends make people's lives different. The Bible values friendship and God teaches people how to make friends and get along with them... David and Jonathan were friends in the Old Testament; Peter and John became friends and also co-workers in the New Testament.
Here are ten Bible passages on friendship:
Proverbs 27:5-6 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Proverbs 18:24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
John 15:12-15 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Proverbs 17:9-10 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool.
Proverbs 22:24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered.
James 2:15-17 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Proverbs 27:14 If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.
Job 6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God's terrors are marshaled against me.
Proverbs 27:9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
- Translated by Karen Luo
