posted by ASLAN International Ministry
Aslan International Ministry –
Choosing Friends
1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 2,088 helpful votes
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Proverbs 13:20 ESV / 1,727 helpful votes
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 1,566 helpful votes
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 1,447 helpful votes
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 18:24 ESV / 1,370 helpful votes
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 12:26 ESV / 1,366 helpful votes
One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Proverbs 22:24-25 ESV / 1,322 helpful votes
Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
John 15:13 ESV / 750 helpful votes
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Proverbs 27:6 ESV / 640 helpful votes
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:5-6 ESV / 640 helpful votes
Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:9 ESV / 632 helpful votes
Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.
Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 610 helpful votes
A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 ESV / 502 helpful votes
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!
Proverbs 17:9 ESV / 498 helpful votes
Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
James 4:4 ESV / 488 helpful votes
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Job 2:11 ESV / 475 helpful votes
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 ESV / 462 helpful votes
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.
Proverbs 19:20 ESV / 431 helpful votes
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
2 Kings 2:2 ESV / 420 helpful votes
And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
John 15:15 ESV / 418 helpful votes
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.
Proverbs 11:14 ESV / 417 helpful votes
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 24:5 ESV / 411 helpful votes
A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
Colossians 3:12-14 ESV / 408 helpful votes
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Luke 6:31 ESV / 400 helpful votes
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
John 15:12-15 ESV / 387 helpful votes
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.
2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 381 helpful votes
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Proverbs 14:6-7 ESV / 381 helpful votes
A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 354 helpful votes
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 342 helpful votes
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Revelation 14:12 ESV / 332 helpful votes
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
1 Samuel 18:1-3 ESV / 328 helpful votes
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.
Proverbs 16:29 ESV / 327 helpful votes
A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.
Proverbs 27:10 ESV / 311 helpful votes
Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.
Revelation 12:1-17 ESV / 310 helpful votes
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, …
Proverbs 1:10 ESV / 310 helpful votes
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
Proverbs 27:5 ESV / 301 helpful votes
Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
James 4:8 ESV / 295 helpful votes
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Ruth 1:16-17 ESV / 285 helpful votes
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 282 helpful votes
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
1 Corinthians 15:33-34 ESV / 279 helpful votes
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
Proverbs 22:24 ESV / 277 helpful votes
Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man,
Psalm 26:4-5 ESV / 276 helpful votes
I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
Proverbs 19:4 ESV / 274 helpful votes
Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
Proverbs 15:22 ESV / 258 helpful votes
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
Proverbs 24:6 ESV / 254 helpful votes
For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.
Proverbs 19:6-7 ESV / 247 helpful votes
Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.
Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 246 helpful votes
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. …
Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 244 helpful votes
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood …
Psalm 1:1 ESV / 240 helpful votes
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
Proverbs 4:14-19 ESV / 238 helpful votes
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. …
Proverbs 1:10-19 ESV / 234 helpful votes
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— …
Proverbs 22:11 ESV / 230 helpful votes
He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.
Galatians 6:2 ESV / 229 helpful votes
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
1 John 4:8 ESV / 228 helpful votes
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 14:6 ESV / 218 helpful votes
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Romans 12:10 ESV / 216 helpful votes
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
1 Corinthians 5:11 ESV / 211 helpful votes
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
Luke 1:37 ESV / 209 helpful votes
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 206 helpful votes
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. …
Proverbs 12:27 ESV / 204 helpful votes
Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.
Proverbs 20:19 ESV / 193 helpful votes
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 187 helpful votes
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. …
1 Timothy 3:1-16 ESV / 186 helpful votes
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? …
Matthew 5:22 ESV / 184 helpful votes
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
1 John 3:1 ESV / 181 helpful votes
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Proverbs 20:6 ESV / 179 helpful votes
Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?
Romans 15:32 ESV / 172 helpful votes
So that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 ESV / 170 helpful votes
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. …
John 17:17 ESV / 170 helpful votes
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
John 14:1-31 ESV / 169 helpful votes
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” …
Isaiah 3:1-26 ESV / 168 helpful votes
For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable. …
Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV / 166 helpful votes
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Psalm 119:63 ESV / 166 helpful votes
I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.
Revelation 12:9 ESV / 161 helpful votes
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Psalm 133:1 ESV / 159 helpful votes
A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!
1 Timothy 3:4 ESV / 158 helpful votes
He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
Job 2:11-13 ESV / 157 helpful votes
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Mark 12:31 ESV / 156 helpful votes
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Proverbs 4:14-15 ESV / 155 helpful votes
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
Proverbs 13:2 ESV / 151 helpful votes
From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.
Romans 12:15 ESV / 149 helpful votes
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
1 John 1:9 ESV / 147 helpful votes
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Proverbs 12:15 ESV / 147 helpful votes
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Proverbs 12:5 ESV / 140 helpful votes
The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
1 Corinthians 15:34 ESV / 137 helpful votes
Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV / 132 helpful votes
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
John 15:13-15 ESV / 130 helpful votes
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.
Proverbs 12:25 ESV / 126 helpful votes
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
Romans 12:10-11 ESV / 125 helpful votes
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 124 helpful votes
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
1 Samuel 18:1-4 ESV / 123 helpful votes
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.
Proverbs 12:13 ESV / 118 helpful votes
An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 117 helpful votes
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Matthew 18:20 ESV / 114 helpful votes
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Romans 12:2 ESV / 112 helpful votes
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
John 3:16-17 ESV / 109 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 107 helpful votes
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Philippians 4:8 ESV / 105 helpful votes
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Hebrews 13:5 ESV / 94 helpful votes
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9 ESV / 81 helpful votes
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
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