Read

Covenant Friendships

1 Samuel 18, 20

We use the word "friend" today in mostly a casual sense; sometimes we use it with a more intense meaning as in "best friend." The Bible uses "friend" both casually and intensely, but it is the latter sense that illustrates the dimension of loyalty found in covenant relationships. If the key theological term for God's love in the New Testament is agape—unconditional love—the parallel key term in the Old Testament is hesed—loyal love. Loyalty is the defining characteristic of covenant relationships in Scripture, illustrated by God's commitment in both Testaments: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5; see Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5).

The term "friend" is used to illustrate two of the most intense relationships between God and man in the Old Testament. Both Moses (Exodus 33:11) and Abraham (2 Chronicles 29:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23) are referred to as friends of God. And in the New Testament, Jesus, as He prepared to empower the New Covenant with His own blood sacrifice, moved His closest relations from the status of "disciple" to "friend" (John 15:13-15). Jesus identified two hallmarks of covenant friendship: loyalty demonstrated by sacrifice (verse 13) and intimacy—knowledge not shared by others (verse 15).

The book of Proverbs touches this deeper level of friendship when it refers to "a friend [who] loves at all times" (17:17), and "a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (18:24). Substituting the word "father" for "brother" in that verse leads us to the deepest covenant friendship between two people in the Old Testament—that between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1-4; 20:4, 17; 2 Samuel 1:26). Jonathan gave his loyalty to David, the anointed successor as king to Jonathan's father, Saul. Even after Jonathan's death, David repaid Jonathan's loyalty by caring for his friend's disabled son, Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:3). The heart of covenant friendship was, and remains, loyalty.

Back to First Samuel