When it comes to choosing friends. God knows our desire to be known and to be loved! He made us for companionship. Read Bible passages about friendship and how if chosen right, our friends can be the greatest source of love, healing, joy, and encouragement.
1 Corinthians 15:33
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
2 Kings 2:2
2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
Job 2:11
11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.
Luke 6:31
31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Proverbs 18:24
24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 19:20
20 Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Proverbs 24:5
5 The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength.
Proverbs 22:24-25
24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.
Proverbs 13:20
20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.
Proverbs 14:4-6
4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests. 5 An honest witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies. 6 The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
Colossians 3:12-14
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Proverbs 27:5-6
5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
John 15:12-15
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Proverbs 17:17
17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 27:17
17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Job 29:4-6
4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, 5 when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, 6 when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.
Proverbs 12:26
26 The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
James 4:4
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Job 16:20-21
20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.