What the Bible Says About The Need for Christian Friendship

Adversity often brings us face-to-face with our need to associate with a different set of people. Perhaps we need to sever ties with others. Perhaps we need new friends. Perhaps we need to align ourselves more closely with Christian believers.

God made us for fellowship and communication with other human beings and with Himself. None of us were designed to go it alone. We need other people, and they need us.

At times, however, we make unwise associations. We choose the wrong friend, employer, partner, or employee. And inevitably, our bad choices bring us adversity.

David and Jonathan provide us with a very good model for true friendship. Jonathan’s love for his friend caused him to act in several specific ways:

* He warned David of possible danger (1 Sam. 19:1–3).

* He spoke well of David, even to a person who considered David an enemy and who was angry with Jonathan for having David as a friend (1 Sam. 19:4, 5).

* He sought to do what David needed him to do (1 Sam. 20:4).

* He risked his life in defending David (1 Sam. 20:30–33).

* He helped David to escape death (1 Sam. 20:35–42).

Jonathan voiced one of the greatest statements of friendship in the Bible when he said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever’” (1 Sam. 20:42). Now, that’s friendship!

Paul describes Christian friendship in what we have come to call the Love Chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. He describes Christian friendship as patient, kind, and humble (v. 4); polite, selfless, unruffled, and positive (v. 5); magnanimous and rooted in truth (v. 6); and supportive, hopeful, and enduring (v. 7).

Such love, Paul said, “never fails” (v. 8). And such friendships are divine blessings in our lives, God’s rich rewards to us on this earth.

Taken from The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible