We need friends. We need them as they need us. The world’s population is ever-increasing and yet it seems that people are lonelier than ever. How is this possible? I mean, you’d think bumping into more people would mean more friends, right? Yet the more people there are, the more people compress and hibernate.

Are people actively learning new ways to avoid human contact?

Before supermarkets were a thing, people went to their local market daily to buy fresh food. I grew up during a time when human beings would bag your groceries for you and then follow you out to your car to load them into your trunk. It was common to spark up a conversation along the way and maybe even make a new friend!

Today, you can go to the supermarket, pick up a hand scanner, bag your own groceries, and never speak to another human being! Better yet (but maybe not better), you can use a smartphone app to order your groceries, an employee will pick them from the shelves, bring them to your vehicle, and then load them into your trunk. You can nod and drive away.

Human contact is increasingly becoming optional. This trend is antagonistic to making and keeping friends; yet companionship is one of the greatest blessings of all.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
- Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Jesus put a premium on friendship because He knew its strength. Even personally, His life was a life surrounded by friends. He was fully engaged in His community, not just because He was the Messiah, either. Jesus was known in His community (Matthew 13:55) before He began His public ministry around the age of thirty (Luke 3:23). He went to wedding feasts, as we know, and other social events.

Jesus was described as a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34), even, so His circle of friends was wide. Of course, He held a special relationship with His sheep.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
- John 15:15

In many ways, it is through personal friendships that people are led to Christ for salvation. That’s the pattern Jesus, personally, has set for us.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
- Luke 10:1

And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
- Mark 5:19

Companionship is critically important on so many levels. I think of the elderly, who sometimes describe themselves as feeling more and more “invisible” as they get older. What aches them the most is not their bodies, but their hearts. Many of them are incapable of traveling to others so their companionship wanes. I believe there’s truth in the saying, “They died of loneliness.”

God designed companionship as a source of vitality. After all, we are made in His image, and He has enjoyed fellowship in love for all of eternity.

So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
- Proverbs 2:20

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
- Proverbs 13:20

If you’re lucky, you may even find what some might call a “soul mate”, like Jonathan apparently did with David.

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. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.

And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
- 1 Samuel 18:1-5

What a beautiful illustration of friendship, huh? As Solomon (David’s son) said, friends stick together and as a unit are much stronger than if they were to stand alone in this world. Who do you suppose taught him this wisdom as a child?

Let us encourage each other, as friends, by being friends. Are friendships an investment? Sure. Will some of them fail? Sure. But as the old saying goes, the greatest risk in life is never taking one. According to Jesus, friendships are worth the effort. If you’re introverted, then maybe just a few will suffice. Whatever the case may be, God’s Word speaks deeply about the value of companionship in this life. Like God, we are social beings. Let’s embrace our primitive need for companionship and see where that takes us (hint: it’s a good place).

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins