Friendship is a crucial part of our development within God's church, and understanding this simple term clearly is essential. We are to have the mind of Jesus Christ in us, and how well we comprehend our relationships with each other, as well as with those who will come after us, is vital to thinking and acting like our elder brother, Jesus Christ. One of our goals should be to understand more about becoming a real friend and what that term means, especially in the context of the close bond of friendship within God's church. True and lasting friendship must be based on the understanding available to us through Jesus Christ. There are many aspects of friendship—being a friend, having a friend, and identifying false friends—that we need to grasp, especially in how we interact with those God has not yet called. The source of real friendship is our bond with Jesus Christ through our calling and exposure to the truth, which should unite us with the same affection in friendship to one another as it does with us to Him. This friendship requires tremendous effort to grow and strengthen over years of faithfully believing and living the truth together. True friendship with Jesus Christ and each other demands consistent dedication and self-sacrifice towards God and one another. This is the friendship that endures through the grave and into the resurrection for eternity. Jesus is the friend of those who do the things He says, and He is our friend, we are His friend, and we must be each other's friend.

God Almighty has set in motion the laws that bond one person to another and sustain friendship. He invented friendship and established the principles that govern it. The God of the Old Testament, who later became Christ, formed several friendships with human beings. Solomon values friendship as something to be cherished, protected, and nurtured, advising not to forsake a friend or a father's friend, for a nearby neighbor is better than a distant brother in times of calamity (Proverbs 27:10). Any alliance or friendship not based on God's laws and principles will not succeed, and close friends should have an intense love for God's law. Godly communication between friends involves sharing common interests, giving and accepting advice, offering and receiving criticism, and providing and accepting encouragement. A healthy relationship requires both giving and receiving, with the primary emphasis on the way of give. Friends should build up rather than tear down, as open rebuke is better than concealed love, and faithful are the wounds of a friend (Proverbs 27:5-6). A friend should never encourage bitterness or rebellion against God's laws but should urge a change of course. The ability to confide freely in another without fear of betrayal marks a mature friendship. Best friends are those in whom you can confide and who can confide in you, as trustful confidence is a two-way street. If friends and family would love others as themselves, as David and Jonathan did, there would be no betrayal of confidence. God Himself is the ultimate recipient of confidences, forgiving and forgetting transgressions shared with Him (Jeremiah 31:34). We must emulate Him by safeguarding the sensitive confidences entrusted to us. Loyalty is perhaps the most desired quality in a friendship. A Christian friend is both a fair-weather and foul-weather companion, sticking closer than a brother born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17). Jesus Christ and God the Father have made such a commitment to us, promising never to leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Godly friendship, based on the way of give, is the cement that forges bonds within the Family of God, strengthening relationships as God's love-building work.

Proverbs 18:24 presents friendship as a quality that requires personal effort, since a man who has friends must himself be friendly, yet it also points to a friend who sticks closer than a brother. This description aligns directly with the meaning of Passover, in which Christ gives His life for those He calls friends and draws out of the world. The verse has long been understood in differing ways because its opening Hebrew construction may indicate existence rather than an individual, while the term rendered friends can encompass companions, neighbors, or those united in a common cause. The following clause, which literally speaks of one who breaks in pieces, has prompted translations that warn of friendships capable of bringing ruin, loss, or mutual destruction. Such relationships stand in contrast to the steadfast bond Christ offers. In John 15 He states His commandment that His followers love one another as He has loved them, and He adds that this mutual love will identify them as His disciples before the world. The passage therefore urges careful examination of efforts to strengthen genuine friendship within the Body of Christ, thereby deepening the bond both among believers and with Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus calls those who do what He commands His friends, no longer servants, because He has made known to them all that He heard from the Father. He did not choose them; He chose and appointed them to bear lasting fruit. His commandment is that they love one another as He has loved them, and the greatest love is to lay down one's life for one's friends. Out of the whole world, which is blind and hostile to God, those called now are chosen to develop friendship, not with the world, but with those placed in the love and friendship of the Body of Christ. This friendship among the brethren is unique because it binds them to Christ and separates them from the world, which hated Him first and therefore hates them. How believers fulfill the responsibilities of friends of God toward one another is a key part of the self-judgment Paul commands before Passover in I Corinthians 11:31. Proverbs 18:24 reinforces this: a man who has friends must himself be friendly, yet there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Its Hebrew meaning, lost in English, is a warning to those God has separated from the world through Christ. Those in a proper relationship with Him must have the same relationship with one another.

Genuine friendship requires loyalty, the enduring commitment to a person that holds firm in adversity, and Jesus Christ is the essence of loyal friendship. He calls us friends and proves it by laying down His life, as John 15:13 says. His sacrifice surpasses every human act of friendship. He did not have to die, He knew beforehand that He would, He died for us while we were still sinners and enemies, and He suffered spiritual death through separation from the Father, which no human can endure for another. David and Jonathan show the best human friendship, since each put the other's interests ahead of his own, and Ruth's loyalty to Naomi shows friendship joined with family ties. God's own faithfulness to His covenant demands a loyal response. With the loyal He shows Himself loyal, and even when we are faithless He remains faithful. Because Christ is a friend to us, we must be His friends. He says, "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you," so our obedience must be active, continuous, and in everything. That friendship extends to the brethren. We are to long to assemble with them, encourage one another, and be faithful in word and action, because Christian perseverance is a community effort. Those who first prove themselves friends of the Bridegroom, as John the Baptist did, will make up His Bride.