Bible Verses About Friendship.
God made people for relationship, and Scripture treats friendship as one of his good gifts. Proverbs has much to say about choosing friends wisely. David and Jonathan show a loyalty that held under pressure.
These verses describe what a true friend is like, how friends shape us, and how to be a good friend. They end with the friendship Jesus offers to those who follow him.
What a True Friend Is
Loyal friends stay when it costs them.
Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 18:24
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
1 Samuel 18:1
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
Ruth 1:16
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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.
Friends Shape Us
You become like the people you walk with.
Proverbs 27:17
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 13:20
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Proverbs 27:6
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Being a Good Friend
Friendship asks something of you too.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
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!
Romans 12:10
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Galatians 6:2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Friendship with Jesus
Jesus calls his followers friends.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14-15
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.
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A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV(R) Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version(R)), copyright (c) 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.