Friends Have Friends

A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

Though they didn’t know it at the time, the original disciples of Jesus enjoyed a status that many today would relish: being the personal friend of Jesus Christ. On the night before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Jesus and His disciples epitomized the relationship pictured in Proverbs 18:24: “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Jesus even experienced his own brothers being unsupportive of Him (John 7:5). In the end, it was His disciples—His friends—who stayed closest to Him. Jesus was first close to them, and they became close to Him. Another real-life example of that kind of friendship in the Old Testament was David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. They formed a covenant relationship by which they shared their possessions, their needs, and their future welfare.

If you would like more close friends, you’ll first need to be a close friend. Be available, be loyal, be present, be forgiving—be a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Friendship flourishes at the fountain of forgiveness.

WILLIAM A. WARD