What does the Bible say about good friends?
Praise the Lord for good friends. Never take them for granted. I encourage you to pray for them and keep looking for cool ways to encourage them with the Word and point them to Christ. I want to take a moment to brag about my friend Pierre.
There’s this moment I still think about when I was talking to him. I’d been wrestling with a choice, torn between what I wanted and what I knew was right. Pierre looked me square in the eye and said, “You’re better than that shortcut.” Proverbs 27:6 whispers, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” and oof, that stung me deeply. But it was the kind of sting that brought healing and much-needed wisdom to my life.
A good friend points you in the right direction. A true friend is honest, even if it means having an awkward conversation. Pierre’s straightforward care showed me what it’s like to have someone bold enough to speak the truth, not just coast along to keep the peace. This reminded me so much of evangelism and the gospel. In love, we are called to speak the truth of Jesus Christ. Cherish your friends and let them know how you feel about them.
1. Proverbs 17:17 (NIV) – “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”
2. John 15:13 (ESV) – “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
3. Proverbs 18:24 (NASB) – “A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
4. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NKJV) – “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.”
5. Proverbs 27:17 (KJV) – “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
6. Job 6:14 (NLT) – “One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty.”
7. James 2:23 (NIV) – “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.”
8. Proverbs 13:20 (ESV) – “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
9. 1 Samuel 18:1 (NASB) – “Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.”
10. Proverbs 27:9 (NKJV) – “Ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.”
11. Psalm 41:9 (KJV) – “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
12. Colossians 3:12-13 (NLT) – “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.”
13. Proverbs 16:28 (NIV) – “A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.”
14. John 15:14-15 (ESV) – “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
15. Proverbs 12:26 (NASB) – “The righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
16. 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NKJV) – “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’”
17. Psalm 119:63 (KJV) – “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.”
18. Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NLT) – “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”
19. Proverbs 27:6 (NIV) – “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
20. Philippians 2:3 (ESV) – “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
21. Ruth 1:16 (NASB) – “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.’”
22. Proverbs 19:4 (NKJV) – “Wealth makes many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.”
23. Exodus 33:11 (KJV) – “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”
24. Galatians 6:2 (NLT) – “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”
25. Proverbs 22:11 (NIV) – “One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend.”
26. Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) – “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”
27. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB) – “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”
28. Proverbs 27:10 (NKJV) – “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 is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.”
29. Psalm 55:13-14 (KJV) – “But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.”
30. Ephesians 4:32 (NLT) – “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”