“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
I must have read this verse at least one-hundred times in the past, and the full impact of it has escaped me until now. To be such a short verse it is really loaded. It teaches us a lot about Jesus and ourselves in just a few words. Let me share with you what I found today. It is true that “a (true) friends loves at all times.” Notice that I added that a “true” friend loves at all times. I know that Solomon knew that anyone who “loves at all times” is a real “true” friend. These kinds of friends are rare, and should be treasured when we find them. Come to think of it, we should seek to be that kind of friend. Proverbs 18:24 shows us how to be that kind of friend: “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” First, to be a loving friend, we must be friendly – period. I guess there are days that we do not feel friendly, but for the sake of the brother, we “show” ourselves friendly. It takes the same amount of energy to be friendly as it takes to be unfriendly. Then it says that a true friend sticks closer than a brother. This says to me that a true friend is one who will stick by you through bad times as well as good times. This leads to the next part of this proverb: “…..and a brother is born for adversity.” A friend that “loves at all times” is akin to a brother is like one who sticks with you through adversity. Who in the world knows what “adversity” can be? It can be anything from a bad day to serious illness. No matter what the adverse conditions may be, a true friend and brother will stick with you through it. You have no doubt heard of “fair weather friends.” These are “friends” (observe the quotation marks,) instead of true friends. We need to seriously stop and ask ourselves are we “friends that love at all times,” and like “a brother born for adversity.” The answer will tell us what kind of friends we are. Would we like to have the kind of friend that we are? Just asking??? In other words, would we be friends like Jesus – which leads us the climax of this matter in the next paragraph. If you will think about the “friend” and “brother” in this verse, they sound an awful lot like Jesus. You will never find a friend who will love you like Jesus, nor will you ever find a brother who will stand by you in adversity like Jesus. In all that life has brought to me, I have found that Jesus has loved me through it all. What a joy it is to know that we can have the presence of Jesus in all that life brings. This doesn’t mean that I have not had family and friends and brothers who have not been there for me, for they certainly have, but there is no one who loves and cares like Jesus. In fact, there are times that you realize that He is helping you through friends and brothers. I guess that a good concluding reminder would be that we should remember that Jesus is seeking us to be friends and brothers/sisters who love friends at all times, even through adversity. A good thing to remember – don’t you think? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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