BLESSINGS OF FAITHFUL FRIENDS

“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a FRIEND who sticks CLOSER THAN a BROTHER” – Proverbs 18:24

Intricately linked with the Blessings of Godly Family are the BLESSINGS of FAITHFUL FRIENDS: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a FRIEND who sticks CLOSER THAN a BROTHER” (Pro.18:24). Such friends can be more intimate, available, and dependable than even siblings. Talents and gifts can secure great positions for one in life: “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men” (v.16). However, Faithful Friendships can be more rewarding! Faithful friends stay, stick, and remain through all life’s seasons and situations: “A Friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Pro.17:17). They are not fair-weather friends: Faithful Men are rare: “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a FAITHFUL MAN?” (Pro.20:6). Faithful Friends are rarer!

True friendship is enduring, often life-long! Faithful friends are committed and sacrificial. They share care, attention, interests, necessities, provisions, passions, gifts, burdens, pressures, pains, problems, and solutions. When Job’s friends heard of his adversity, they “made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him” (Job 2:11). At the end of his trial, Job also prayed for his friends (Pro. 42:10). Faithful friends seek one another’s good, and share secrets, wisdom and counsel: “Ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man’s friends does so by hearty counsel” (Pro.27:9). Faithful friendships are nurtured, developed, and defended.

Faithful friends correct, chastise, encourage, motivate, and add value mutually. A faithful friend is someone who knows all about you, but likes you anyway; one before whom you can dream aloud! True friends are like a mirror and shadow. The mirror doesn’t lie and the shadow never leaves. Faithful friends are ‘naked,’ honest, open, and sincere: “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed” (Pro.27:5). We’re never embarrassed being corrected by true friends: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Pro.27:6). Faithful friends are value-creating and value-adding: “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his FRIEND” (Pro.27:17).

Faithful friends walk in when others walk out on us. They are Covenant-keepers, as was the case between David and Jonathan, King Saul’s son (1Sam.18:3-4; 2Sam.9:1-3). The best friends are those who bring out the best in us; those who by their attitude or action, acknowledge “every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Phi.6). A true friend will see you through when others see that you’re through. A good friend never gets in your way unless you are on your way down. Faithful friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget. The Blessings of Friendship accrue, not so much from the multiplicity of friends, but in terms of their intimacy, commitment, worth and value.

In addition to spouses and children, we need friends to make sense of our lives. A father was reported to have advised his son: “Never forget your friends, they’ll become more important as you get older. Regardless of how much you love your family and the children you happen to have; you will always need friends. Remember to go out with them occasionally; do activities with them, call them, keep in touch with friends.”

Time passes. Life ebbs. Distances broaden. Children grow up, become independent, and separate from parents. Jobs and career change. Illusions, attractions, and desires for pleasure weaken. But true and faithful friends are always there, no matter how long or how far away they are. A faithful friend is never more distant than the reach of a need; reaching one to one, intervening in favour, waiting with open arms or with blessings of love and life. Uniquely blessed is the man or woman whose spouse is also the Best and Faithful Friend.

Our Lord Jesus Christ remains the Greatest and Most Faithful Friend, even to society’s outcasts – tax collectors and sinners (Mt.11:19). He epitomises the Blessings of Faithful Friendship: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for HIS FRIENDS” (Jh.15:13).