I highly value friendship. Maybe more that I should sometimes. Dr. David Griffis, author, husband, and prolific preacher offers this incredible insight on friendship:
I write today about friends….real friends. It is a subject that God himself takes very seriously, as we shall see. Friends….true friends, next to God and family, are your greatest treasure. Consider these scriptures……

“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17 KJV)
This scripture gives to us the foundational truth about real friendship. A real friend always loves you no matter what. A true brother or sister is placed in your life for your times of adversity. They will see you through any and everything.

Most of us have hundreds, if not thousands of acquaintances,
And those acquaintances can be kind and caring for brief moments, as our lives intersect with each other, but those moments are quickly passed, and our paths go separate ways. Our experience with them is good, but not permanent, just pleasant memories fading into the mists of time.

Then there are those who call themselves our friends, but our life experience proves that claim to be false indeed. Their “friendship” was based upon what they could gain from us. Job in his hour of affliction said “and my familiar friends have forgotten me.”(Job19:14)

And again Job said “All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved have turned against me.” (Job 19:19) When Job prospered and was affluent his friends flocked to him with flattery, but when he is down and without wealth or influence, stricken with illness, they only criticize him as they desert him.

The writer of Proverbs put it this way…”Wealth maketh many friends: but the poor is separated from his neighbor”(Proverbs 19:4)
Succinctly interpreted….As long as you can benefit some folks, they’ll pretend to be your friend. Their shallow character permits that grave injustice to you. Once you can’t help them in their goals they are out of your life. Incredibly sad unfortunately, but incredibly true.

The Apostle Paul, awaiting his own execution in Rome, said “For Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world” (II Tim.4:10)
Demas was gone, Paul would soon be dead and in Demas’s carnal mind, Paul was of no more benefit to him. He had plans and Paul couldn’t augment them. His plans were carnal, shallow and based on a coveted life position. For Demas, the old Apostle Paul couldn’t contribute to his future, so he ended the friendship.

But Paul wasn’t finished with this brief glimpse into true friendship. He would then mention others of his party, who at his instruction and blessing, had left to spread the Gospel, but then he states “Only Luke is with me…” (II Tim. 4:11). His true friend,
Luke, the beloved physician, stayed with him through his darkest hour. An old friend with a true heart would be there when his moment of death arrived…”Only Luke is with me”.

One day in God’s eternity, I think I’ll find Luke and thank him for being a friend to Paul and in so doing teaching me a great lesson on true friendship. You see, that’s what
true friends do….they’re there….always there for you. May I always be there for them.