[True friendship can not be known without the love of God.]
The Nature of the Lord
The Lord’s Friends
John 15:12-20 “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
[Friendship is strongest when it has common purpose. The closest friendships are formed in war.]
Luke 12:4 “And I say unto you my friends. . . .”
James 2:21-23 “Abraham believed God . . . and he was called the Friend of God.”
(Isaiah 41:8 “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.”)
Exodus 33:11 “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”
John 21:1-7 “Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.”
Who Not To Be Friends With
Proverbs 22:24-25 “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go. . . .”
James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
You CANNOT serve two masters.
True Friendship
1st Peter 2:17 “Love the brotherhood.”
1st John 4:20 “. . . he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
3:14 “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”
(5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”)
Psalm 133:1 “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
(Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”)
How To Have It
Proverbs 16:23 “The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.”
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech be alway with grace . . . that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
Romans 12:10 “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. . . .”
1st Peter 3:8-9 “. . . be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing. . . .”
James 1:19-20, 26 “. . . let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. . . .”
Proverbs 26:17 “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 “. . . there is a . . . time to every purpose . . . a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. . . .”
John 3:27-29 “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.”
[A friend rejoices in the joy of his friend.]
Galatians 6:1-2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens. . . .”
Hebrews 10:24-25 “. . . provoke unto love and to good works. . . . exhorting one another. . . .”
[The world says, “You shouldn’t but into other people’s lives!”]
[What do they mean, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”?]
things of others here
Proverbs 27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
27:9 “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.”
v. 10 “Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.”
v. 17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”
18:24 “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
1st Peter 3:8-9 “. . . be ye all of one mind . . . love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. . . .”
Ephesians 4:30-32 “And be ye kind one to another . . . forgiving one another. . . .”
Colossians 3:12-17 “. . . Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. . . .”
(Matthew 18:21-22 “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”)
1st Corinthians 1:10-11 “. . . be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
4:6-7 “For who maketh thee to differ from another. . . ?”
False Friendship (Sometimes the word “friend” just means “acquaintance.”)
Matthew 26:31-50 “And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
Psalm 41:9 “Yea, mine own familiar friend . . . hath lifted up his heel against me. ”
Luke 21:16 “And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.”
Job 19:14 “My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.”
Luke 23:1-12 “And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together. . . .”
(This is friendship based on common hatred or weakness.)
Proverbs 14:20 “The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.”
23:6-7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”
26:24-26 “When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.”
Jeremiah 9:8 “Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.”
Zechariah 13:6 “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”
Lamentations 1:1-2 “She [Jerusalem] weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.”
The Enemies of Friendship
Proverbs 16:28 “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.”
17:9 “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”
False Brethren
2nd Corinthians 11:26 “in perils among false brethren”
Galatians 2:4 “. . . false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage”