Right before summer officially kicks off comes a celebration where we can pay homage to our friends: National Best Friends Day. This unofficial holiday, which this year fell on Monday, June 8, celebrates those special people in our lives who have always been there for us.
The Bible has a great deal to say about friendship; in fact, the close bond between Naomi and Ruth, David and Jonathan, and Barnabas and Paul are some of the most famous friendships in all of history.
However, there is no greater definition of a true friend than Jesus Christ Himself, who died for His "friends" so that they might inherit eternal life. John 15:13-15 reads, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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." Because Jesus modeled for us the true meaning of friendship and sacrifice, we are able to extend the same kind of love to others.
This National Best Friends Day, show your closest friends how much they mean to you with one of these special Bible verses.
Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
John 15:12-15 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: 10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!"
Luke 6:31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."
Proverbs 18:24 "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Job 16:20-21 "My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend."
Romans 12:10 "Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor."
Colossians 3:12-14 "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."
