Question:
What is a true friend?  How do we know who our real friends are?

Answer:

“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).  “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).  “Open rebuke is better than secret love.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:5,6).  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  Thus a true friend is consistently a friend, one who values you so much that he is willing to risk wounding you with a rebuke in order to draw you back to the path of faithfulness to the Lord, and one who is willing even to lay down his life for you.  How about you?  If you want to have true friends, do you show yourself friendly?  Do you exhibit the qualities of a true friend yourself?  Are you enough of a friend that you would be willing to lay down your life for your friends?