scriptures on friendship
Scriptures on Friendship
Biblical quotes and passages are often the most simple, yet powerful messages one can read. Scroll below for some scriptural passages about friends and their role in one's life.
What is friendship? A platonic love? A relationship based purely on mutual liking? Can it ruin man or enlighten him? Whatever the reason, need or indeed an explanation, a man without friends is a poor man indeed. The Bible is a great source of knowledge and truth, especially when some things cannot be explained or understood. Passages from the Bible regarding love are pure words, that send a clear and hopeful message. Below are some Bible scriptures on friendship, that illustrate the concept and underline the need for this most purest of relationships.
Scriptures on Friendship
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.
John 15: 12-15 (New International Version)
Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man's friend gives delight by hearty counsel.
Proverbs 27:9 (New King James Version)
But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend
Isaiah 41:8 (New King James Version)
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24 (New International Version)
If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.
Psalm 55:12-14 (New International Version)
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17 (New International Version)
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 New International Version)
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
Luke 5:20 (New International Version)
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
Romans 12:15 (New King James Version)
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 (New International Version)
Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter: whoever finds one has found a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; and those who fear the Lord will find them.
Ben Sira 6:14-16 (New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
Romans 5:10 (New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)
Scriptures Regarding Advice About Friends
Make no friends with those given to anger, and do not associate with hotheads, 25 or you may learn their ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
Proverbs 22:24-25 (New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)
Love your friend and keep faith with him; but if you betray his secrets, do not follow after him.
Ben Sira 27:17 (New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)
Do not abandon old friends, for new ones cannot equal them. A new friend is like new wine; when it has aged, you can drink it with pleasure.
Ben Sira 9:10 New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10 New International Version)
A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Proverbs 12:26 (New International Version)
Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits."
1 Corinthians 15:33 (New King James Version)
Do not forsake your own friend or your father's friend, Nor go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity - better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.
Proverbs 27:10 (New International Version)
A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.
Proverbs 16:28 (New International Version)
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17 (New International Version)
He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20 (New King James Version)
The above scriptures shine a clear light on how friendship is a blessed relationship. In today's rat race, we tend to make everything about advantages and getting ahead, so reading such passages serves to remind us, that other things exist too.