Friend: A Women's Bible Study

What Is a Friend?

Webster's Dictionary defines "friend" from French and old English meaning "to love": one attached to another by affection or esteem; one that favors or promotes something (as a charity); a favored companion.

Jesus Calls Us Friends

John 15:13-15: At the last supper with His disciples, after Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, he told them:

"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."

How Are We to Be Friends

Friends help each other: Luke 7:6. When a centurion heard that Jesus had entered Capernaum, he knew Jesus could heal his servant. He "sent friends to say to Him: 'Lord, don't trouble yourself to come, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.'"

Friends take care of each other: Acts 24:23. When the apostle Paul was on trial before Felix, the governor "ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs."

Acts 27:3. When Paul was sailing to Rome as a prisoner, they "landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs."

Friends protect each other: Acts 19:31. During Paul's missionary travels in Ephesus, silversmiths were causing a riot. "Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater."

Friends rejoice with each other: John 3:29. Jesus taught: "The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete."

Luke 15:6. Jesus taught a parable about a shepherd: "He calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'"

Luke 15:9. Jesus taught about a woman who lost a coin: "She calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.'"