18 January 2023 - The value of friendship

Good friendships are worth more than gold and can help us endure difficult trials. However, friendships not bonded in faith for God can corrupt our hearts more than we know.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NLT) Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”

Proverbs 18:24 (NRSV) Some friends play at friendship, but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.

Proverbs 25:13 (MSG) Reliable friends who do what they say are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!

Proverbs 27:6 (NKJV) Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV) As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (AMPC) Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor; For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Good friendships are one of the biggest influences on happiness in our lives. It gives a sense of belonging and self-value that is difficult to achieve. However, not all social relationships are positive. Sometimes we can develop toxic relationships with negative people that can be detrimental to our mental and physical health in the long run. Fortunately, every day we are given new opportunities to create positive friendships, and the most important thing is knowing how to develop them.

Friendship is one of the most valuable relationships a person can have. There is no equal for a true friend. In the case of David and Jonathan, we see an example of true friendship that stood the test of hardship and time. David’s friendship with Jonathan started right after his defeat of Goliath. And even though it was tested by Jonathan’s father wanting to kill David, their friendship withstood the test. David honoured their friendship even long after Jonathan’s death.

John 15:12–17 (NIV) 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

In this passage, Jesus Himself says He is our friend.

I conclude with an old song written by Joseph M. Scriven and composed by Charles Crozat Converse, What a friend we have in Jesus.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.