100 Bible Verses about Love For A Close Friend

Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 20 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

John 15:13 ESV / 16 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 18:24 ESV / 16 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Proverbs 12:26 ESV / 12 helpful votes

One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Proverbs 27:9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 10 helpful votes

A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 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! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Proverbs 27:6 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 22:24-25 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

James 4:4 ESV / 8 helpful votes

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

John 15:15 ESV / 8 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 17:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

Proverbs 13:20 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Job 6:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

1 John 4:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Romans 12:10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

John 15:12-15 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.

John 3:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Luke 6:31 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

James 4:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Colossians 3:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 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 10:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Job 2:11 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

2 Kings 2:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

1 Samuel 18:1-3 ESV / 6 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. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.

1 John 3:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

James 2:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Ephesians 4:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Let all that you do be done in love.

Romans 13:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Proverbs 27:5-6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 22:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.

Proverbs 20:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

2 Samuel 1:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ...

Romans 5:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Proverbs 27:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do not forsake your friend and 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 who is far away.

Proverbs 24:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

Psalm 133:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

1 Samuel 18:1 ESV / 4 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.

Ruth 1:16-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

1 John 4:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 3:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 Peter 4:8-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

1 Peter 1:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

2 Timothy 1:2-4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.

Colossians 3:12-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Philippians 2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Romans 13:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 12:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Romans 1:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

John 15:13-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.

John 13:34-35 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Luke 6:35 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Matthew 18:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Proverbs 19:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Proverbs 16:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Proverbs 14:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

Proverbs 3:3-4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

Psalm 55:12-14 ESV / 3 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 / 3 helpful votes

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

2 Samuel 15:32-37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

While David was coming to the summit, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn and dirt on his head. David said to him, “If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant,’ then you will defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel. Are not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son, and by them you shall send to me everything you hear.” ...

1 Samuel 22:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”

3 John 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

1 John 4:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

1 John 4:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 3:16-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Peter 3:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

1 Thessalonians 4:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,

1 Thessalonians 3:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

Colossians 4:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.

Colossians 3:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Philippians 2:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need,

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 5:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 4:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Galatians 6:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

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