James 4:4 makes it clear that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Since I want to stay FAR away from being an enemy to my Lord, I want to do a deep dive into the term, “friendship” and learn all I can about it in order that I remain a friend of God and not His enemy. ❤️
When I think about a friend, I think about the good AND the bad of friendship. Some friends have hurt me. Some, I’ve known for years and I trust them completely. And there are friends at every single stage in between those lines.
Friends who pretend they’re your friends for the “goodies”, the stuff, the blessings of being around you.
Friends who say they are your friend to your face, but behind your back, they are vicious, mean, and spread lies about you, who are no longer friends.
Friends who are sweet and kind.
Friends who are bold and tough.
Friends who are always there for you no matter what.
Friends who leave at the slightest sign of trouble.
And while friendships do bring a certain amount of trouble sometimes, you can’t stay away from friends.
Why?
#1 – Isolation is never the answer.
Proverbs 18:1, Hebrews 10:25 (in context), and 1 Corinthians 12:14 makes that clear.
#2 – You need friends in your life to help you see your blind spots.
We all, as Christians, sin. And we are so great at justifying and hiding from ourselves, our own sin. We’re starving little people who think we’re not. We always think we are better than we truly are, and it takes friends in our lives to show us these errors (Proverbs 27:17), so that we can quickly fix them and avoid chastisement from our loving Father.
Yet, we must be VERY…and I mean VERY…careful about WHO we are friends with.
Take a look at what Proverbs 1:10-16 says.
Friends can entice us to sin. They can make it look so good, so appealing, and since we trust them (or for social graces), we don’t often question them, we just go along with it. Then we end up on the wrong side of things.
An example: one of your friends and you are having tea at her house and she starts gossiping. We are to stay away from gossip (Proverbs 20:19). Do you listen? How do you tactfully and graciously get out of that conversation?
Sometimes, sin can be so subtle and hit us before we even realize we’re engaging in it.
The Bible is clear, bad company corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). We must guard ourselves while we walk this earth!
Guard how we spend our time, who we hang out with, who we date or marry, guard where we go to church, who we listen to, what music or TV shows we watch. We’re always standing guard.
So, what is a friend? What is friendship? What should we be aware of in choosing friends? What should we cling to or stay away from?
Let’s find out together in these 30 Bible verses about friendship! After you’re done reading through the verses, if you want a really amazing picture of friendship in the Bible, do a deep-dive study of Jonathan and David! You will be very blessed by it.
30 Bible Verses About Friendship
1) Proverbs 18:24
“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
2) John 15:12-15
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 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.”
3) Proverbs 27:9
“Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.”
4) Job 6:14
“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.”
5) Proverbs 13:20
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
6) Hebrews 10:24-25
“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, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
7) Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
8) James 4:4
“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
9) 1 Corinthians 15:33
“Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
10) Proverbs 22:24-25
“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.”
11) Job 42:10
“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
12) Romans 12:10
“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
13) Proverbs 27:5-6
“Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
14) Psalm 133:1
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”
15) 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
16) Proverbs 27:17
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
17) Philippians 2:3
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
18) Galatians 6:2
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
19) Proverbs 17:17
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
20) James 4:11
“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
21) 1 Peter 4:8-10
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:”
22) Luke 6:31
“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”
23) 1 John 4:11-12
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
24) Proverbs 16:28
“A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.”
25) Job 16:20-21
“My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.”
26) Luke 16:9
“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
27) Proverbs 17:9
“Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.”
28) 1 Samuel 18:3-4
“Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.”
29) Proverbs 27:10
“Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.”
30) Job 2:11
“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.”
