Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1).
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother"(Pro 17:17; 18:24).
Adversity and challenges often bring us face-to-face with our need to associate with different set of people.
Perhaps we need new friends. Perhaps we need to sever ties with others. Perhaps we need to align ourselves more closely with Christian believers.
God made us for friendship, fellowship and communication with other human beings and with Himself. None of us were designed to do it alone. We need other people, and they need us.
At times, however, we make unwise associations. We choose the wrong friend or employer or partner or employee. And inevitably, our bad decisions and choices bring us adversity.
David and Jonathan provide us with a very good model for true friendship. Jonathan's love for his friend caused him to act in several specific ways:
He warned David of possible danger (1 Sam. 19:1-3).
He spoke well of David, even to a person who considered David an enemy and who was angry with Jonathan for having David as a friend (1 Sam 19:4).
He sought to do what David needed him to do (1 Sam 20:4).
He risked his life in defending David (1 Sam. 20: 32, 33).
He helped David to escape death (1 Sam. 20 : 35 - 41).
Jonathan voiced one of the greatest statements of friendship in the Bible when he said to David, "Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, may the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever" (1 Sam. 20:42).
Now, that's friendship!
Paul describes Christian friendship in what we have come to call the love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. He describes Christian friendship as:
patient,
kind,
humble,
polite,
selfless,
unruffled,
magnanimous,
rooted in truth,
supportive,
hopeful, and
enduring.
Such love, Paul said, never fails. And such friendships are divine blessings in our lives, God's rich rewards to us on this earth.
To love is to live in God. He who does not love does not know God! No Christian has ever been called to "do it alone" in his or her walk of faith with the Lord.
We urgently need true Christian love today.
Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power! Be my best friend!