Friendship
Proverbs 27:5-6, 9-10, 17 NASB
5 Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
9 Oil and perfume make the heart glad, So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.
10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.
17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.
Friendship with someone is usually birthed out of shared interests and results in many happy times spent together. But these verses from Proverbs 27 speak of deep friendship. It is the kind of friendship that, because of real concern and love, hard things are said. Things like “wounds of a friend” and “iron sharpens iron” indicate pain and friction. We likely can identify with those feelings. But the challenge is to look beyond those feelings and be willing to be the kind of friend that can give and receive sharpening through the love of Christ. Let Ephesians 4:25-32 be our model for friendship.
Ephesians 4:25-32 NASB
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
