Today, more and more people are growing up in abnormal families and hostile environments and consequently do not understand the basics of friendship at all. Therefore we must seek to understand what the Bible teaches about this most basic subject, a subject that in other ages would have been frivolous to study. Two hundred years ago, it would have seemed a waste of sermon-time to preach entire messages on godly friendship, friendliness, and relationships. It is not a waste of time for the contemporary