What is the most famous Bible verse about friendship?

Proverbs 17:17 is the classic, describing a friend who loves at all times. Proverbs 27:17 is close behind, with its image of iron sharpening iron, and John 15:13 may be the deepest of all, where Jesus defines the greatest love as laying down your life for your friends. Proverbs 18:24 rounds out the list with its picture of a friend closer than family.

Does the Bible say anything about choosing friends?

Quite a lot. Proverbs 13:20 says that walking with the wise makes a person wise, while bad company brings harm. Proverbs 12:26 pictures the righteous choosing their friends carefully, and Proverbs 22:24 warns against close friendship with a hot-tempered person. 1 Corinthians 15:33 makes the same point bluntly in the New Testament. The Bible treats friendship as formative, so it urges care.

What verse can I send a friend going through a hard time?

Galatians 6:2 works well because it frames showing up as carrying a burden together. Proverbs 17:17 reminds them that hard times are exactly what friends are for. If they need encouragement more than company, try 1 Thessalonians 5:11 or Romans 12:15, which honors sitting with someone in their sadness. Send the verse with a short personal note rather than on its own.

Bible Verses About Friendship

A random verse drawn from 26 passages chosen for this topic.

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 17:17KJV

TranslationFrom

Drawing from 26 verses

Friendship gets more attention in the Bible than most people expect. Proverbs alone returns to the theme again and again, with short, sharp lines about loyalty, honesty, and the company we keep.

Scripture's picture of a true friend is consistent. A real friend stays loyal in hard times, tells the truth even when it stings, and makes you better just by being close. It is a high bar, and an encouraging one.

The Old Testament gives the theme a face in David and Jonathan, whose loyalty to each other survived jealousy, danger, and a king's anger. Their story is still the Bible's most famous friendship.

Jesus raises friendship even higher. He described the greatest possible love as laying down your life for your friends, and then He called His disciples friends rather than servants.

The New Testament letters add dozens of one another instructions. Encourage one another, carry each other's burdens, forgive quickly, stay devoted. These are friendship verses in work clothes.

Every tap of the shuffle above pulls a random friendship verse from this set. Draw until one sounds like a friend you know, then send it to them. Copying and sharing takes one tap.

People reach for these verses at predictable moments. A best friend's birthday card. A thank-you text to someone who showed up when it mattered. A hospital visit, a season of grief, or the loneliness that follows a move to a new city.

They also help with the harder side of friendship. Scripture has direct advice about mending a falling out, handling gossip, and choosing friends wisely in a new school or workplace. Proverbs is especially blunt on all three.

Good friendships run on small, repeated gestures, and a well-timed verse is exactly that. Keep this page handy, and let one of these verses do its quiet work the next time a friend comes to mind.

All 26 verses about friendship, in the King James Version

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Proverbs 27:6
Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
Proverbs 27:9
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20
The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Proverbs 12:26
A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.
Proverbs 16:28
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Ecclesiastes 4:9
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Ecclesiastes 4:10
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
John 15:14
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
John 15:15
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 13:34
And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
1 Samuel 18:1
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
1 Samuel 18:3
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
Job 2:11
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Romans 12:10
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Romans 12:15
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Hebrews 10:24
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Colossians 3:13
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 John 4:11
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Luke 6:31

Frequently asked questions

What is the most famous Bible verse about friendship?: Proverbs 17:17 is the classic, describing a friend who loves at all times. Proverbs 27:17 is close behind, with its image of iron sharpening iron, and John 15:13 may be the deepest of all, where Jesus defines the greatest love as laying down your life for your friends. Proverbs 18:24 rounds out the list with its picture of a friend closer than family.
Does the Bible say anything about choosing friends?: Quite a lot. Proverbs 13:20 says that walking with the wise makes a person wise, while bad company brings harm. Proverbs 12:26 pictures the righteous choosing their friends carefully, and Proverbs 22:24 warns against close friendship with a hot-tempered person. 1 Corinthians 15:33 makes the same point bluntly in the New Testament. The Bible treats friendship as formative, so it urges care.
What verse can I send a friend going through a hard time?: Galatians 6:2 works well because it frames showing up as carrying a burden together. Proverbs 17:17 reminds them that hard times are exactly what friends are for. If they need encouragement more than company, try 1 Thessalonians 5:11 or Romans 12:15, which honors sitting with someone in their sadness. Send the verse with a short personal note rather than on its own.