What Does the Bible Say About Friends?

John 15:13 ESV / 162 helpful votes

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 ESV / 125 helpful votes

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

Proverbs 18:24 ESV / 84 helpful votes

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

John 15:15 ESV / 56 helpful votes

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 55 helpful votes

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 13:20 ESV / 48 helpful votes

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Psalm 55:12-14 ESV / 43 helpful votes

For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.

Psalm 41:9 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

1 Samuel 18:3 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.

John 15:14 ESV / 20 helpful votes

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Romans 1:8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

1 Samuel 18:1 ESV / 13 helpful votes

As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

1 Corinthians 15:1-58 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ...

Psalm 55:20 ESV / 10 helpful votes

My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Psalm 88:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

Psalm 35:11-16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing; ...

Jeremiah 4:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. ...

Psalm 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

1 Kings 2:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, avenging in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war, and putting the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the sandals on his feet.

2 Samuel 15:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city Giloh. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing.

Bible Verses about Friends