PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly. A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:23-24).

verse 24, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.” How have we always read that? If you want to make friends you have to be friendly. Well, that is not what this says. It says that a man “hath friends.” He already has friends and “must shew himself friendly,” that is, a man with friends has responsibilities towards his friends. Sometimes folks lose friends because they do not uphold their end of the responsibility. I know we always think of friendly as being smiley and slobbery and gooey and huggy and stuff. Well, “a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.” How is a man with friends supposed to act? Friendly. It does not mean he is just nice all the time and goes around hugging folks. Right?

“. . . there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” so, define friendly. Well, how about this. Do you stick close to your friend, or are you willing to cast him under the bus if he offends you one more time? See, a man that has friends has a responsibility, and that responsibility is to be friendly. Right? I know that we often interpret friendly to be something kind of soft, but it is not like that.

Let me ask you a few questions. Are you easily reconciled? A man that have friends will get crossed up with some of those friends somewhere along the way. Right? Are you easily reconciled? Is it easy to reconcile with you? “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly,” now maybe he should be nice and friendly if he wants to make friends too. I understand that, but this guy already has friends. Sometimes folks forget that your responsibility to those friends is to be objective with your them. Will you search out a neighbor, like verse 17 said? Your friend comes to you and tells you, “Man, I am ready to quit my job! That boss of mine has spoken to me for the last time like that! By the way, I think I am going to go to his house and beat him up.”

Are you somebody that will step in the gap and actually search your friend out, and bring him back to their senses? Sometimes a friend has to be calmed down. Sometimes a friend is going to do something stupid and sorely needs your help to convince him not to do it.

“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).

Daily Bible study is necessary if we are going to begin our day with the right attitude and the right spiritual diet. Proverbs has 31 chapters, and most months have 31 days, so let's read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let's keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread! Ideally, a chapter or two of Proverbs will fit in nicely with a good plan of reading our Bibles through each year.

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