What the Bible Says About Friends by Myra Kahn Adams for Town Hall
Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here. News Flash: The first 56 volumes are compiled into a book titled “Bible Study For Those Who Don’t Read The Bible.”
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If you are blessed with close friends, you love them dearly and know the feeling is reciprocal. Love of friends is rooted in God’s love – the creator of love. He loves us, we love Him, and we shower our friends with that God-given emotion.
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We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Having a friend(s) means we are engaged in a relationship where we positively and sometimes negatively influence each other while negotiating life’s ups and downs. Unfortunately, close friends can also turn into ruthless enemies, which is heartbreaking. As we know, life is complicated, ever-changing, and reflected in the arc of our friendships.
With those thoughts in mind, we begin with verses addressing how friends can impact each other. Do these verses prove that our mothers were quoting the Bible when they warned us about falling in with the “wrong crowd” and how we would be judged by the company we keep? The Hebrew Bible book of Proverbs could be the source behind those motherly concerns:
“The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray” (Proverbs 12:26).
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20).
“A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28).
“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared” (Proverbs 22:24-25).
