Finding good friends is hard as it is, so why do we need godly friendships as Christians? Whether you’re just curious about Jesus or whether you’ve been following Him for years, godly friendships are essential to your walk with Christ. Through scriptures on godly friendships, you’ll discover what godly friendships in the Bible look like and how you can grow your community to become centered around Jesus, the worthy one!
What is a Godly Friendship?
Ever heard the phrase, “Bad company corrupts good morals?” Did you know this saying actually comes from the Bible? In 1 Corinthians 15:33, Paul is encouraging Christians in the early church to be careful about who they do life with.
There is one main thing that seperates a godly friendship from a regular friendship. A godly friendship is a friendship that glorifies God and keeps Jesus and His kingdom at the center of the friendship. Instead of surrounding yourself with people who are living in sin, it’s essential to grow your friendships into godly friendships where following Jesus is a communal effort. Here are some general characteristics of a godly friendship:
Godly Friendships:
- glorify God
- place God at the center of the friendship
- cultivate accountability and iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17)
- are full of mutual encouragement
- make prayer a priority
- experience healthy conflict and conflict resolution
- keep us from sinning
Ungodly Friendships:
- glorify sin/selfishness
- place self/sin/the world at the center of the friendship
- cultivate complacency and apathy
- can become co-dependent or unhealthy
- make prayer the least of priorities
- tend to have unhealthy conflict and conflict resolution
Key Characteristics of a Godly Friendship:
1. Godly Friendships Provide Mutual Support & Encouragement: Life can be hard sometimes. In godly friendships, you have a friend who will be there for you, help you in your time of need, and also pray for you as things come up. For example, say you’re feeling under the weather with a cold. Rather than your friend only coming over to bring you soup, in a godly friendship, your friend can also pray that Jesus would heal your body quickly.
Godly friendships are full of encouragement and support, no matter what you’re going through. When you have a godly friend, you know you have someone to rejoice with when you're happy and weep with when you're sad (Romans 12:15, Galatians 6:2).
Learn more about what godly friendship look like when a friend is walking through mental health challenges: How Do I Help a Friend Who is Suicidal?
2. Godly Friendships Encourage Spiritual Growth: Have you ever tried to be consistent at working out? It’s easy in the beginning and then consistency usually becomes difficult. However, if you’re a part of a team or have a personal trainer, going to the gym gets easier and easier with time and encouragement. The same principle applies to godly friendships and spiritual growth.
Because God is at the center of any godly friendship, spiritual growth is always at the forefront. In godly friendships, you can read the Bible together, pray together, and even share the love of Jesus with those who don't know Him yet, together. And, as you get more and more godly friends in your life, your community can live on mission, sharing the love of Jesus together, just like in the early Church!
Why is a Christian community so important to spiritual growth? Discover why in our blog: 5 Bible Verses About Christian Community
3. Godly Friendships Provide Wisdom & Accountability: When you have a godly friendship, you have built-in accountability in your life. Whether you’re struggling with a sin habit or wanting to grow in spiritual disciplines, godly friendships provide accountability, encouragement, and celebration as you conquer the things you want to overcome.
Related post: What Does the Bible Actually Say About Self-Control?
4. Godly Friendships Provide Loyalty & Trust: Because a godly friendship is built on Biblical principles like prayer, fellowship, service towards others, and brotherly love, you will experience a loyalty and trust that can’t be found in other forms of friendship. Godly friendships in the Bible looked like weathering storms together, even in the darkest of times. For example, Paul & Silas had a godly friendship that stood strong through thick and thin. Even when Paul & Silas were imprisoned for their faith in Jesus, they prayed and worshipped together despite experiencing intense persecution (Acts 16:16-40).
Discover more about how to grow in trusting God and others in our blog: How to Trust God When Life Isn’t Going Well
5. Godly Friendships Encourage Purity of Heart: Scriptures on godly friendships show us that when God is at the center of a friendship, it encourages pure motives and good intent. When you have godly friendships, you’re more likely to live a life that strives to please God instead of trying to please the world.
6. Godly Friendships Challenge You to Be Forgiving & Compassionate: Nobody is perfect, even in godly friendships. As you grow a godly friendship, you’ll find that you’ll need to forgive often. Miscommunications and offense can ruin friendships, but in godly friendships, communicating about how things have hurt you will actually strengthen your relationship. Having direct, honest, and compassionate conversations in godly friendships helps us cultivate a lifestyle of forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation.
Learn more about forgiveness in our blog: The Power of Forgiveness: 9 Bible Verses About Forgiveness
The Importance of Godly Friendships
One of the key characteristics of godly friendships is that they build selflessness and brotherly love towards one another in our hearts. Pursuing God individually is important, but pursuing God within the context of a community is also essential to your spiritual health and spiritual growth. Here are four key reasons why godly friendships are important, regardless of whether you consider yourself introverted or extroverted:
- Godly Friendships Strengthen Your Faith: Strengthening your faith in isolation is difficult. When you want to grow in a certain area, you usually reach out to a mentor or someone wiser than you to help you grow. The same goes for our spiritual walk. Godly friendships help strengthen your faith expontentially. A pastor once said, “Get around people who burn for Jesus more than you.” When you do this in godly friendships, your hunger and passion for God will naturally grow.
- Godly Friendships Help You Live Out God’s Love: The whole Gospel is about the love that God has for us: people! The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:38-39). Godly friendships are important because they helps us live out God’s selfless love.
Related post: 15 Bible Verses About God Loving You No Matter What
- Godly Friendships Keep You Accountable: Accountability isn’t a big value in modern culture, but in godly friendships, accountability and vulnerability are a big deal. Jesus tells His followers to follow Him and stay on the narrow way (Matthew 7:14). Godly friendships help us to stay on the way that leads to life instead of the way that leads to sin.
What Does the Bible Say About Godly Friendships?
Now that we've learned some key characteristics of godly friendships and discovered why a godly friendship is important, let's read some scriptures from the Bible! The Bible is full of examples of godly friendships and scriptures on godly friendships. Let’s dive into what the Bible says about godly friendships by exploring key scriptures on this topic:
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. - Proverbs 17:17
Godly friendships in the Bible show us that friends love in every season: through the highs, the lows, and the inbetweens. Scriptures on Godly friendships often bring in language about brotherly affection or brotherly/familial relationships. Healthy family and godly friendship go hand in hand, as both godly friends and healthy family members stay loyal through times of need, times of trouble, and times of rejoicing.
One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. - Proverbs 18:24
This scripture on godly friendship is a wake-up call for most of us. Unreliable friends come to ruin, but godly friendships stick closer than a brother. Wow: what good news! Because of Jesus, we have the capacity to love like Him and be faithful, hopeful, godly friends in any season. How can you show the love of Jesus to a friend of yours walking through rough times today?
Get creative ideas for helping others and hear stories of Godly friendships in action on our podcast: Pursuing Community: An Interview with Abby Fabre
Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:2
Godly friendships are friendships that stay strong through times of joy and times of sorrow. In this scripture on godly friendships, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia. At the time this scripture on godly friendship was written, the church was experiencing persecution, confusion, and pressure from religious authorities. In this time of trouble, Paul encourages the church to carry each other's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.
Learn more about how to cultivate love, joy, peace, and patience in godly friendships in our blog: Study the Scriptures: What Are the Fruits of the Spirit?
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. - Proverbs 27:17
This scripture on godly friendship is one of the most quoted Bible verses on friendships. "Iron sharpening iron", isn’t meant to be a pretty, poetic phrase. When iron sharpens iron, the process is abrasive and sparks fly. The same can happen in Godly friendships. Healthy conflict, accountability, and conflict resolution are essential to any Godly friendship.
Curious to learn what the difference is between good anger and bad anger in conflict? Learn more in our blog: What is Righteous Anger?
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another - Hebrews 10:24-25
When’s the last time you paused to consider how to do more good in the world and love others well? This scripture on godly friendship encourages Christians to think about how to stir up one another to love and good works! Godly friendships in the Bible are like iron sharpening iron, but they’re also like a competition to love the most and do the most good to others. Another element of this scripture on godly friendship is an encouragement to meet with others instead of living in isolation.
You were never meant to walk alone. Learn how to find Christian community in our blog: How to Have a Christian Family
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11
This scripture on Godly friendship encourages Christians to encourage one another. Encouragement in a godly friendship can look like prayer, calling a friend to check in on them, cooking a meal for a friend walking through a hard time, or speaking kind words to a friend when things are hard.
For an in-depth guide with ideas on how to love well in Godly friendships, head to our blog: How to Share the Love of God With Others
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends" - John 15:13
Scriptures on godly friendships consistently talk about loving one another and building one another up in the faith. But the greatest form of love? To lay down your life for a friend. This Bible verse about godly friendship is a direct quote from Jesus. Jesus showed us the greatest form of love by dying for us so that we could be right with God.
Learn more about the power of Jesus’ love and sacrifice: This is For You!
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. - Romans 12:10
What a striking statement: “Outdo one another in showing honor!" In Godly friendships, honor is essential. As you learn to love your friends with brotherly affection, sticking through times of joy and times of sorrow, you’ll grow in honor and respect for your friends.
Romans 12 is a great passage on the Christian life, godly friendships, and the marks of a true Christian. Read the whole of Romans 12 to build up your faith today!
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep - Romans 12:15
Scriptures on godly friendships show us that a godly friendship is built for the long haul. As you steward godly friendships in your life, don’t be afraid to weep together and grieve together. It will only make rejoicing together even sweeter!
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. - Ephesians 4:32
Forgiveness is an essential part of any godly friendship. When you have an offended and angry heart, it’s hard to forgive. But when you have a tender and soft heart, you have the capacity to forgive.
Learn more about the power of forgiveness in godly friendships and beyond: How to Find Freedom Through Forgiveness
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. - Proverbs 13:20
Scriptures on godly friendships encourage believers in Jesus to walk with the wise and stay away from the foolish. The book of Proverbs is a guide to life for Christians seeking wisdom on life, godly friendships, and how to follow God’s ways. There are 31 Proverbs in total, so there is a proverb for every day of the month!
You can read the book of Proverbs today through the ESV Bible Online: Proverbs 1
Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. - Proverbs 22:24-25
This scripture on godly friendship from the book of Proverbs reminds us not to be close friends with someone who is easily angered. While anger happens to all of us, it’s important that we not be overcome by anger and develop a sour temper.
Learn more about how to overcome anger in our blog: Find Help With Anger: 15 Bible Verses for When You Feel Angry
Conclusion
In the end, godly friendships are more than just fun companionship; they are a real-life expression of Christ’s love in our everyday lives. When we choose friends who point us to Jesus, we are choosing to follow God’s ways and become more like Him. When we pursue godly friendships, we gain mutual encouragement, accountability, and the gift of iron sharpening iron in our walk with Jesus. No matter if you're experiencing joy, trials, difficulties, or breakthroughs, godly friendships will help you in every season. Our team at the Everyday Faith podcast is praying that you will find godly friendships that deepen your walk with God and reflect His steadfast love in your life!
