Good morning! Hearing James Taylor sing, “You’ve Got a Friend,” or Randy Newman sing on the Toy Story soundtrack, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” brings about an optimism much needed in our world. I was told a long time ago that if you have two to three good friends in your life, you are a blessed man. What is a friend? Let’s look at some examples.

David and Jonathan were friends: “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 Samuel 18:1).

Job had three friends who behaved as such–at least at first: “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 (Job 2:11).

Sometimes friends aren’t friends, just opportunists: “The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends” (Proverbs 14:20).

At times, friends show tough love: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6).

Our spouses should be our friends: “His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song of Solomon 5:16).

In the Tent of Meeting, God spoke to Moses as a friend: “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11).

In John 15, Christ called his disciples his friends because they knew his business. Jesus poured into them, cared for them, and was with them throughout the entirety of his three-year-ministry.

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants,^[a] 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. 

Jesus Christ, John 15:13-15

I pray God has blessed you with earthly friends, but if not, He has blessed you with one who gave His all for you–Jesus Christ. Christ as our friend always shows His love, and the bloody cross and empty tomb are standing testimonies of this friend who has always shown His love to rescue us from our brokenness.

Is Christ your friend? Repent of your sins and surrender your all and see what type of friend He would be!