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"Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
(Proverbs 27:6)
This week I will write about the topic of friendship. First, I need to get Garth Brooks' lyrics, "I've got friends in low places," out of my head! Do you know what an earworm is? It is when you get a tune stuck in your mind and you keep repeating it. It is "a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing." (Source.)
Friendship—what a wonderful concept. The Bible has a lot to say about this grand topic. It mentions many wonderful friendships, like the one between Jonathan and King David, or Paul and the many friends he mentions by name, like Luke and Timothy. Friends are a vital part of a balanced and healthy life. If you have five genuine, true friends, then you are very blessed and have accomplished much. Few people have that many genuine friends.
You may ask, "What is a genuine friend?" He or she is someone that knows you very well and still loves you! Solomon teaches us in our text for today that a faithful friend is someone who wounds you. You may be thinking you have plenty of so-called "friends" who inflict pain on you, and you need no more friends like that. But Solomon has something entirely different in mind. He is writing about a friend who will tell you the truth about yourself even when you do not want to hear it. Yes, it stings or wounds, and that is because we know it's the truth, and it hurts our pride.
Solomon contrasts the faithful friend with the person who is actually your enemy. The enemy is the one who kisses you, meaning he or she just tells you what you want to hear and is not true and forthcoming with you. They end up doing more harm than helping you. Flattery does not help, but truth spoken in love has great potential. I say potential because you and I have to receive with humility the hard truths from our friends.
Of course, the greatest of all friends is Jesus; He is truly a friend of sinners, because He is my friend! (He is also my Lord and Savior!) Luke 7:34-35 states, "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by all her children."
My prayer for you today is that you ask God to develop your friendship pool, that God would bless you with many wonderful friends and that you would be that great friend to others.
Oh, wait a minute... here it comes again, "I've got friends in low places." Earworms!
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