Jonathan is usually thought of in connection with his friendship with David; in fact, the
names David and Jona-used together have become synonymous with close friends.

David may have been still a teenager when he killed Goliath, since he was not a part of
Saul’s army. (An Israelite man was considered eligible for military service at age
twenty, Num. 1:3.) Jonathan was older than David since he had been active in the
service of his father for some time.

Jonathan initiated the friendship with David. It would not have been in order for David,
a young shepherd, to make overtures to the king’s eldest son. What characteristics in id
attracted Jonathan and caused his soul to be "knit the soul of David"? (1 Sam. 18:1).
He saw a hand-e, strong, courageous young man. These attributes made David popular
with the people; but Jonathan saw more than that in David. He saw a young man who
trusted Jehovah completely and who was willing to put his life in His hands. Jonathan
also had this kind of faith, which he had displayed when he went up to the camp of the
Philistines (1 Sam. 14). It was this shared trust in God and willingness to accept His
will which bound Jonathan and David so closely together.

True friendship can occur only between people who share the same basic philosophy of
life and the same moral convictions. For the Christian this means that he can only have
true friendship with other Christians. If a person desires to commit every aspect of his
life to the Lord, then he will find true friendship only with other people whose
desires are the same. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and
what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2 6:14, 15). Many a Christian has
suffered spiritual loss and sometimes spiritual disaster because of a poor choice of
friends.

I am not saying that we should refuse all social contact with the unsaved. But to spend a
great deal of time in company with the unsaved is profitless unless much of that time
can be spent in presenting Christ to them; and to enter into worldly amusements and
activities with the unsaved is dangerous for both the Christian and the non-Christian.
Such activities tend to divert the Christian’s mind and affections from Christ and they
divert the non-Christian’s mind from his need of salvation. Besides this, when a
Christian joins with an unsaved person in worldly activities, this gives the latter a false
sense of security.

The devoted Christian will value friendship and communion with others of like mind,
but he will never let these relationships overshadow his friendship with the Lord Jesus.
He is the only perfect Friend. He is always interested in us. He is never "too busy" to
listen to us. He wants us to tell Him our joys and sorrows, our victories and defeats.
We can tell Him things we would not want any of our earthly friends to know. (We
cannot hide anything from Him anyway.)

He wants only our blessing and He alone has the wisdom and power to arrange every
detail of our lives in order to give us blessing. May each of us accept His will for us in
order to partake of that blessing.