Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

Friends or Friendship can be described as Any person having affection or attachment to another person. Today one of the common expressions heard is so and so is my “BFF” or “Best Friend Forever.” In the Biblical Sense Friend is used in many ways here are some examples¹:

friend — noun. a person you know well and regard with affection and trust.

companion — noun. a person who is frequently in the company of another; sometimes with the connotation of a friend.

company — noun. a band of people associated temporarily in some activity.

to join (cause) — verb. to cause to become joined or linked.

to join (unite with) — verb. to be or become joined or united or linked.

to associate — verb. to keep company with.

to be unified — verb. to be or become formed or combined into a whole.

to be joined (socially) — verb. to have come into the company of or joined socially with another or others.

acquainted — adjective. having the status of someone whom another knows personally; perhaps on the level of a friend with all the accompanying privileges.

to be joined (group) — verb. to be made a part or member of something, group, or organization.

to join (group) — verb. to become part of; become a member of a group or organization.

A Fair-Weather² friend however is: someone who is a good friend when it is easy to be one and who stops being one when you are having problems.

Of course, we know the only true BFF, the only person that one can be assured will be our “Friend for Eternity” is Christ Jesus.

FRIEND. The word friend in the language of Scripture is very general; but eminently so when spoken of Christ. Abraham is called “the friend of God.” (2 Chron. 20:7.) And the friendship of David and Jonathan is proverbial. (1 Sam. 18:3.) But all friendship falls to the ground, when brought into any comparative statement with that of the friendship of the Lord Jesus. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” So Speaks Jesus himself. (John 15:13.) But though no man ever manifested greater love than this, yet the God-man himself far, very far, exceeded it; for he laid down his life for his enemies. (Rom. 5:8.) And what unceasing, what everlasting, what unexampled proofs did Jesus give of his friendship, before it came to this last finishing act of love in dying for his people. He engaged from everlasting as our Surety; he took our nature, married our persons, paid all our debts, cancelled all our insolvency, bore the whole weight and pressure both of our sins and his Father’s wrath, endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we should be weary and faint in our minds; and having died for us, he took up both the person and the causes of all his people. He is now carrying on the whole purposes of redemption, and never intermits one moment an unceasing attention to our present and everlasting interests; neither will he, until that he hath brought home all his redeemed to glory, that “where he is, there they may be also.” Well might the spouse in the Canticles, in the contemplation of such unheard of unexampled love, exclaim, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!” (Song 5:16.)

Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures (London: Ebenezer Palmer, 1828), 286–287.

DEVOTIONAL

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1. LOGOS Bible Software Factbook ↩︎
2. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fair-weather-friend ↩︎

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