Friends Are Good to Have

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man’s friend does so by hearty counsel. Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, Nor go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; For better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away. As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:6, 9, 10, 17, NKJV).

Several references are made in Proverbs to the value of friends. Go back a few chapters and read in Proverbs 17:17a: “A friend loves at all times.” And in Proverbs 18:24: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Think of your friends, or more specifically a “best” friend. We used to have a saying when I was young, although of incorrect English, to specify a very special, extremely close friend: “______is my ‘bestest’ friend.” To place the superlative form at the end of the adjective indicated “above all others.” Friendship is such an important human relationship that Jesus taught about it within the context of His teaching on love: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatsoever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all thing that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:12-15, NKJV).

Like iron applied to iron to fashion and sharpen it, so a friend can hone, cheer, encourage and help another friend. It is a good thing when one spouse can say of another, first and foremost, “He/she is my best friend.” Many great writers have penned words on the value of friendship. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.” He also wrote, “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Today, think of some dear friends. Thank God for them, and pray for them by name. Better, still, contact one and tell that person how you value his/her friendship. But above all, value your relationship with Jesus Christ, the Friend above all friends, the One who “sticks closer than a brother.”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, July 31, 2010