Bible verses about friendship: 18 passages for the people who walk with you

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Hebrew poetry often says one thing twice in different words. A friend and a brother here are the same person: someone who shows up when things go wrong.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

The King James reads the first half differently, about showing yourself friendly. Both versions agree on the point: a few deep friends are worth more than a crowd of companions.

Greater love has no one than this, that he 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 a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

The difference Jesus draws between a servant and a friend is being told what is going on. He shares his Father’s heart with his friends, and then gives his life for them.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up! Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The Teacher gives very practical reasons: help when you fall, warmth at night, protection in danger. Friendship is not a luxury; it is how people survive.

After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself. And from that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

Jonathan was the king’s son and heir, and David was the one who would take the throne instead. Jonathan loved him anyway, without rivalry.

But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

A young widow from Moab chooses to stay with her grieving mother-in-law in a foreign land. Often read at weddings, it began as a vow of friendship and loyalty.

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

For seven days Job’s friends sat with him and said nothing, and it was the best thing they did. Their trouble began when they started explaining his suffering, and God later rebuked them for it.

The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Faithful wounds are the hard words that come from someone on your side. Flattery can feel kinder and do far more damage.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Sharpening involves friction. Good friends do not always agree, and the rub is part of how each makes the other better.

Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.

Oil and incense were small luxuries that filled a room. Honest advice from a friend is described the same way: something sweet.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

When a friend falls, the goal is restoring them, gently, while staying humble about your own weakness. Carrying their burden is part of it.

A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.

Gossip does not only hurt the person talked about. It quietly pulls apart people who were once close.

Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but he who brings it up separates friends.

Some offences are best let go rather than raised again and again. Keeping every grievance alive is a sure way to lose a friend.

For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend. We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

David says he could have endured an enemy, but this was a friend he had worshipped beside. The Bible gives words for the particular pain of betrayal.

He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

You become like the people you walk with. Choosing friends is one of the most important decisions you make.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

Paul quotes a well-known Greek saying, usually traced to the poet Menander. Wisdom about friendship was common ground, and he used it.

Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.

Paul adds that they are already doing it. Encouragement is not a new skill to learn but a habit to keep up.

And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Consider means think carefully about. Good friendship is thoughtful: working out what would actually help the other person keep going.