The Bible highlights the importance of trust, love, respect and mutual support in nurturing a healthy and robust friendship. This profound focus on friendship is found in numerous books across the Old and New Testaments, offering life-changing perspectives regarding how to navigate relationships with wisdom, grace and faith.
What Does the Bible Say About the Significance of Friendship?
According to the Bible, friendship is much more than a casual social interaction. It is depicted as a deep bond between individuals, offering love, comfort, guidance and support. Whereas modern society may sometimes place a lower emphasis on the importance of friendship compared to romantic or familial relationships, the Bible recognizes and underscores the value of non-blood related bonds. The value that the Bible places on friendship can guide individuals to better understand and cultivate friendships that are soul-enriching and spiritually nourishing.
Why Is Love Essential in Biblical Friendship?
Love is the bedrock of friendship according to the principles outlined in the Bible. The Bible teaches that friends must love each other deeply and genuinely, often challenging themselves to demonstrate the highest form of love – sacrificial love. This involves putting the needs of friends before personal needs, underlining a sense of thoughtful selflessness. From the Bible’s perspective, this type of love strengthens friendships and makes them a source of life and joy.
Who Are Friends According to the Bible?
The Bible characterizes friends as individuals who are trustworthy and steadfast. Biblical friends are more than mere companions; they are confidants who prove reliable in times of hardship, offering sincere advice and personal sacrifice. They respect and hold each other accountable, exhibiting honesty even when it might be uncomfortable. Notably, the Bible significantly presents God as a friend, revealing the deep, intimate relationship believers can cultivate with the divine.
When Do Biblical Principles of Friendship Apply?
The Bible’s teachings on friendship apply at all times, not just during periods of comfort and peace. The concepts are pertinent during periods of joy, sorrow, conflict, failure, and victory, serving as a guide on how to engage and maintain friendships. In times of crisis, the biblical principles of friendship encourage companionship and solace, supporting one another in love and respect. During times of joy, they encourage celebrations and happiness sharing among friends. They’re not just antiquated concepts but timeless prescriptions for robust friendships.
Where Can We Use Biblical Teachings on Friendship?
The principles and teachings the Bible provides regarding friendship are not restricted to personal friendships. They can apply to relationships in schools, workplaces, communities, and even virtual spaces. Further, these teachings can help improve family relationships since the notions of respect, trust, love, and sacrifice are universally applicable. These teachings aren’t bounded by culture or geography. They offer profound insights for nurturing relationships, regardless of context and despite differences in culture or tradition. Using these principles, individuals can foster enduring friendship that align with the teachings and values advocated in the Bible.
Below is our full list of bible verses on friendship (King James Version – KJV) provided in ranked order.
Most Popular Bible Verses About Friendship
Proverbs 18:24
“24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
Related Themes: Loneliness Loyalty Dating Family
John 15:13
“13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Related Themes: Love Homelessness Life Strangers
Proverbs 27:17
“17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
Related Themes: Criticism Teamwork Working Together Dating
Proverbs 17:17
“17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
“9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Related Themes: Teamwork Working Together Dating
1 Corinthians 15:33
“33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
Related Themes: Dating Morals Reputation Morality
1 Thessalonians 5:11
“11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
Proverbs 27:9
“9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.”
Related Themes: Criticism Dating Reputation Counseling
Proverbs 27:6
“6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
Related Themes: Criticism Dating Telling The Truth Reputation
Job 6:14
“14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.”
Proverbs 13:20
“20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
Related Themes: Criticism Peer Pressure Dating Reputation
Proverbs 16:28
“28 A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.”
Hebrews 10:24-25
“24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Related Themes: Criticism Community Working Together Church
1 Peter 4:8-10
“8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging.10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Proverbs 22:24-25
“24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.”
Related Themes: Criticism Dating Frustration
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
“9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”
Related Themes: Teamwork Working Together Dating
Proverbs 17:9
“9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”
Related Themes: Gossip Bitterness Forgiveness Love
Proverbs 12:26
“26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.”
Related Themes: Reputation
Luke 6:31
“31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
Related Themes: Gossip Business Judging Others Love
James 4:4
“4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Related Themes: Lust Dating Social Justice Adultery Morality
Romans 1:12
“12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
Proverbs 27:5-6
“5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
John 15:12-14
“12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
Related Themes: Strangers Love Homelessness
Proverbs 22:24-27
“24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.26 Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.27 If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?”
Related Themes: Criticism Dating Frustration
1 John 4:7
“7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
Proverbs 27:10
“10 Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.”
Related Themes: Loyalty
John 15:12-15
“12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Related Themes: Strangers Love Homelessness
Job 2:11
“11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.”
John 15:15
“15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Related Themes: Identity Loneliness
Psalm 41:9
“9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
