Do
you know how many times the word “love” is used in the Bible? It is used 573
times in the New King James translation. How about the word “friend”? 131
times! I think that friendship and love is very important if it is mentioned
that many times. I want to just take a minute and look at the dictionary’s
definition of a few terms. Here are just a few definitions for love: somebody
much loved, worship of God, very strong affection, passionate attraction and
desire that is mostly romantic. So there are a couple ways to look at love.
First, there is a romantic and sexual attraction to someone, which is not the
love that is most often mentioned in the Bible. Second, God’s love for his
creation, which is the type of love most mentioned in the Bible. The third kind
of love is deep compassion or a strong friendship, which is the type of love I
want to talk about the most.
Before we can talk about that kind
of love, we must define one word there, and that is friendship, or friend.
Friend means someone who you trust and are emotionally close to. Friendship is
a relationship between friends (simple enough). So now that we have the
“official” definitions; throw those out the window and grab your Bible. We are going
to make our own definitions of love and what a friend is. Before we start on
that, you need to understand the different levels of relationships. There is
your relationship with God, your relationship with your spouse (unless you are
younger), your relationship with your family, your relationship with friends,
and your relationship with people you don’t know.
Your relationship with God is so
much different than a relationship with friends. You and God are not equal, you
appeal up to Him, and he is in control of you and everything around you. Your
relationship with your spouse (if you have one) should be next in importance,
and although you are both equal, you should be trying to please your spouse and
be trying to love them. Next would be your relationship with your family.
Following that would be your relationship with friends, and lastly, your
relationship with people around you that you may or may not know.
In this article, I intend to focus
on the relationship between friends. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens
iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” So as Christians, our
relationships need to be sharpening us, or in other words, our relationships
need to be strengthening us in our Christian walk. A friend can help you in
many ways, and just to show you a handful of them, look at these passages:
Ephesians 4:15, Proverbs 17:17, and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. So what is a friend
good for? Why have friends? Well, the verse in Ephesians says that a friend
speaks the truth in love. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times…”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 has little snippets of advice about friends, “Two are better
than one…” and “If one falls, the other is there to pick him up…” and also “One
may be overpowered, but two may withstand…”
Something
very important for you to understand is that these things are not only what a
friend is good for, but also what you should be as a friend. As we draw to the
conclusion of this article, I think it very important that you don’t just
choose friends wisely, but that you are also a good friend. I just want to
conclude this article with two verses from John 15:13-14, which says, “Greater
love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are
My friends if you do whatever I command you.” So, are you being a good friend,
and if so, have you surrounded yourself with good influences?
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