"Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Proverbs 27:6
As a young child, it did not take me long to figure out that when my mom or dad took me to a particular building that I might have a problem. In that place, the workers wore doctor’s and nurses’ outfits! That meant I was probably going to get hurt from the visit before we left. I could not understand how that getting stuck with a needle was helping me! Anytime we drove in the direction of that building, I would begin to get nervous. If we stopped there, the dread set in, and the panic followed! If those people are my friends, why did they hurt me?! Even into my teen years, I would get antsy going to a hospital.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”
A true friend is a faithful friend. They aren’t “fair-weather-friends,” or in the relationship for what they can get out of it, but they have a genuine concern for their friend. Friends care for friends. This makes me remember a definition of “love” that my youth pastor taught me. He said, “Love is the willing self-sacrifice on the part of one, in behalf of another.”[1] A friend will do the best thing for his/her friend because he is faithful to his/her friend. Sometimes it is needful to cause some pain to help his/her friend grow up. Solomon understood this principle when he wrote our verse for today.
“This, then, is the contrast, that the strokes inflicted by one who truly loves us, although they tear into our flesh (…to split, to tear open), yet are faithful…;[2]
When needed, David welcomed the “wounds of a friend.”
“Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities” (Psalm 141:5).
We are indeed blessed if we have faithful friends that will hurt us when we need it to help us.
“But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
Beware of deceit coming from those who pretend to love us! An enemy cloaks his/her evil wishes in phony showy actions to fool us into thinking he/she is a friend.
“…on the contrary, the enemy covers over with kisses him to whom he wishes all evil.”[3]
These are the behaviors of a Judas. Here’s what he did to Jesus.
“Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him” (Matthew 26:48-50).
Let’s not live and act like a Judas! We need to be faithful in all our friendships.
[1] Pastor Mike Greene taught me so much when I was in Junior and Senior High School. He did a lot to shape me as a future youth pastor. Sure have appreciated him through the years, and I still miss him!
[2] Keil & Delitzsch, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, the electronic version in eSword.
[3] Ibid.