Friendship

Have People lost the Quality of Friendship

Friendship is a reciprocal relationship characterized by intimacy, faithfulness, trust, unmotivated kindness, and service. The concept can describe one’s relationship with people and with God.

Concept Summary

In Hebrew, the most common word related to friendship is רֵעַ (rēaʿ, “friend”). Another common way Hebrew expresses friendship is through the verb הָבַר (hābar, “to associate with”) and related words. The Septuagint uses πλησίον (plēsion, “neighbor”) as the most common translation of rēaʿ. The nt, however, favors the word φίλος (philos) for “friend,” whereas plēsion is used primarily for “neighbor.” Interestingly, both the ot and nt rarely use the word “friendship”; instead, the attitudes, actions, and qualities that characterize this relationship are the preferred way of describing it.

Proverb18.24 “24 A man of many friends will come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverb 17.17 “17 The friend loves at all times, but a brother is born for adversity.”

John 15.12-13 “12 This is my commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Job 16.20-21 “20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, 21 and it argues for a mortal with God, and as a human for his friend.”

Job 42.10 “10 Then Yahweh returned Job’s fortune when he prayed to him on behalf of his friends. Thus Yahweh increased all that Job had twice as much as before.”

Proverb 27.9 “9 Perfume and incense will gladden a heart, and the pleasantness of one’s friend is personal advice.”

Psalms 133.1 “1 Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.”

1 Thess 5.11“11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as indeed you are doing.”

Rom 12.10 “10 being devoted to one another in brotherly love, esteeming one another more highly in honor,”

Col 3.13 “13 putting up with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone should have a complaint against anyone, just as also the Lord forgave you, thus also you do the same.”

Proverb 16.28 “28 A person of perversity will spread dissent, and he who whispers separates a close friend.”

1 Pet 4.8-10 “8 Above all, keep your love for one another constant, because love covers a large number of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it for serving one another, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

Proverb 17.9 “9 He who forgives an affront fosters love, but he who waits on a matter will alienate a friend.”

Ecc 4.10 “10 For if they fall, one will help up his companion. But pity the one who falls and there is no one to help him up.”

Job 6.14 “14 “Loyal love should come for the afflicted from his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of Shaddai.”

Proverb 27.10 “10 As for your friend and a friend of your father, do not forsake them, and the house of your brother, do not enter on the day of your calamity. Better is a close neighbor than a distant brother.”

Proverb 22.24-25 “24 Do not befriend an owner of anger, and with a man of wrath you shall not associate; 25 lest you learn his way and become entangled in a snare to yourself.”

Proverb 12.26 “26 A righteous person will seek out his neighbor, but the way of the wicked will lead them astray.”

Gal 6.2 “2 Carry the burdens of one another, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”