It’s very difficult
trying to make it on our own;
when we fall,
if there’s no one there
to pick us up.
But what a blessing it is
to have a friend there
to lift our spirits
when we’re down.
Ecclesiastes 4:10 Paraphrased
Comparisons are a vital tool
used in scripture to teach wisdom
For example, when Samuel
said loving God is more important
than simply going through the
religious performance, he said,
“To obey is better than sacrifice”
1 Samuel 15:22
Or when Solomon praised the
importance of harmony by
avoiding unloving people,
he said,
“Better is a dinner of herbs
where love is
than a fattened ox
and hatred with it”
Proverbs 15:17
Another comparison through
It’s better to be satisfied in the
goodness of God, then the raw
and harsh aspects of others
I read about a little girl who
misquoted Psalm 23
but spoke better than she knew.
Rather than saying,
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want,” she said,
“The Lord is my shepherd;
that’s all I want.”
Most of us want so many other
things in life that it is hard for
us to say that,
Is Jesus all we want or not,
the truth is that He is all we need.
Most of us want so many other
things in life that it is hard for us to
say that, Jesus is all we want
the truth is that He is all we need.
Aristotle dedicates two whole
books of his Ethics to the subject
of Friendship,
Cicero made it the theme of
one of his most finished essays.
“The wise man,” says Seneca
“needs a friend,
One who helps when we’re poor
One who releases us when we’re
in bondage,
one who sits with us
when we’re sick
one who rescues us when we’re
attacked by foes.”
Prov. 17:17, 27:17,
A Jewish proverb makes a
Comparison
“a man without friends is like
a left hand without the right”
the preciousness of friendship
is one of the joys of life
having good friends is one of the
highest of human goods, and
wisdom instructs us to value it
as the chief element of security
Jesus sent out His disciples
“two and two together”
Luke 10:1
And Jesus is a friend that sticks
closer then any friend, closer then
a brother and closer then our
marriage partner and lover.
As the poet wrote:
What wondrous love is this,
O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this,
O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse
for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse
for my soul.
When I was sinking down,
sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down,
sinking down,
When I was sinking down
beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown
for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown
for my soul.
Or as another poet wrote:
O love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
My richer, fuller be
O light that followest all my way
I yield my flickering torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshines glow its day
May brighter, fairer be
O joy you seek me through the pain
I cannot close my heart to thee
I trace the rainbow through the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
Then morn shall tearless be
Do we know Jesus in that way?
Have we let Him surround us
with loving, uplifting friends?
