How To Be A Good Friend

Being a good friend doesn’t always come easily. It can be easy to get wrapped up in life that we forget to touch base with a friend, or leave a friend out because we want to hang out with a new friend we made. Friendships aren’t always easy, and not all of them will last forever, but let’s look at the friendship of David and Jonathan in the Bible and see what the two of them can teach us about real friendship.

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

We can see from this verse that true friendship is loving the other person like ourselves. Jonathan loved David and would do anything for him. He was loyal and would help David whenever he needed it. Jonathan paints a picture of what true friendship looks like, its simply loving your friend like you would love yourself.

Another thing we can learn about friendship from Jonathan is that friendship isn’t jealous. Jonathan should have been in line to be king. His father was the king, and Jonathan was royalty. However, God had anointed David to be king instead. Jonathan could have been jealous of David. Instead, Jonathan did everything he could to help David succeed.

Then Jonathan told David, “I promise by the LORD, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know.
 – 1 Samuel 20:12

Here we see that Jonathan goes and finds out how his father feels about David. Jonathan protected David. He warned David that his father wanted to kill him. Jonathan showed true friendship by protecting David from harm.

How I weep for you, my brother Jonathan! Oh, how much I loved you! And your love for me was deep, deeper than the love of women! – 2 Samuel 1:26

When Jonathan died, David was very sad. David’s words about Jonathan show how much his friendship meant to David. He said that he loved his friend.

The story of Jonathan and David can show us a lot about being a good friend. Many times our relationships are based on what we can get out of the relationship. You might be friends with someone because they have a car and can drive you places. Or perhaps they have a lot of money and so you hang out with them for what they can give you. The story of David and Jonathan shows us that there is a deeper type of friendship. A friendship that is not based on what you can get from a person but out of love for that person.

Challenge yourself to not be a taker in relationships, but to love others for who they are and be a good friend!

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