When Christian people talk of a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, there is commonly one Friend in their mind, the best Friend, the most faithful, and sympathetic, and mighty, our blessed Redeemer. But that thought was quite out of the mind of the man that wrote the verse. The writer was not thinking at all of Christ. All he names here is the fact of experience, that men have sometimes found a friend who was more constant and faithful than a brother.
I. A sorrowful alienation from those once nearest is a sad characteristic of our life as years go on. Most human beings would need a friend nearer than almost any of their blood. A characteristic of advancing years is a growing selfishness; a shrivelling up of all the real interests of life into the narrow compass of one's own personality. The most unselfish and the kindest-hearted will need diligently to counterwork that increasing alienation, which in the latter years tends to estrange us from others, to throw us in upon ourselves, to make us quite alone. Keep as near as you will, there is still an inevitable space between, a certain distance between you and your best friends in this world. We would all need to have a friend who can keep nearer us, and understand us better, and stand by us more faithfully, and help us more effectually, than any human being.
II. And there is such a friend. If we could vividly believe that Christ is our friend, it is very easy to see how good and great a friend, (1) Think of His power His power to help and protect, in work, in danger, in temptation. (2) Think of His sympathy He can feel for us, He can understand us, and all we are feeling and going through. His might to help us is as of one raised like the stars above us; His understanding of us is nearer than that of one who sits by the same fireside. (3) This best Friend will never disappoint us; as those we thought our good friends here sometimes do. (4) This best Friend is always near. (5) This Friend is never estranged. (6) He will never die. There is no shadow of coming parting to hang, unspoken of, but oftentimes silently remembered, over our communion with Him.
A. K. H. B., From a Quiet Place,p. 169.
Our text speaks of a friendship which is the noblest and most enduring. It compares it with what is usually regarded as one of the most powerful and abiding relations on earth, the love of brethren. There is a friend, it tells us, that sticketh closer than a brother. Who that friend is it says not. It may refer to the fact that even in our common life we meet with friends that are better to us than even our relations; but who can doubt that, whatever its primary reference, it does emphatically describe the character of One who is pre-eminently the Friend of man, the Friend of sinners, and the Friend of saints?
I. The love of this Friend is disinterested. How could it be otherwise? What drew Him to us? Was it primarily to be blessed Himself or to bless others that He came? It was not His own happiness He came to seek when He left the world in which He is and was God over all, blessed for ever it was ours; His joy was that of seeing others rescued, redeemed, purified, glorified.
II. The friendship of Christ is an intelligent friendship; it is a friendship which is based on knowledge, and a complete knowledge of us. Many of the friendships of this world have no such basis whatever, and it is this which often accounts for their very brief and unsatisfactory character. Christ knows what is in man. He knows, therefore, the worst of us. There is nothing that can come out to surprise Him and revolt Him. And yet He sticks closer than a brother.
III. The friendship of Christ is marked by its fidelity. He does not love us with a fondness which shrinks from admonition when admonition is needed. If He be unseen, He is still at our side, and by His providence is speaking to us now, as once He spoke in an audible voice. He will not suffer sin in us to go unreproved.
IV. His friendship is marked by its constancy. It is not like the moon with its phases, but like the sun, without variableness or the shadow of a turning. He does not break off from us because we are not all we should be to Him. He sticks to us closer than a brother.
E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment,p. 292.
What our text says is true of human friends, describes them, and furnishes a reason why we should value them, and do all that is right and proper to retain them. But if it applies to any, it applies to the Lord Jesus. It is most of all true of Him.
I. The text is true of Jesus in respect of His love. He loves you better than a brother does. He is the very embodiment of the love of God, and "God is love."
II. The text is true of Jesus in respect of His kindness. He is kinder to you, does more for you than a brother. Kindness is the outcome of love, the result of love, the expression of love.
III. The text is true of Jesus in respect of His patience. He bears with you more than a brother. If anything could win the hearts of children, it should be the patience and gentleness of Jesus.
IV. The text is true of Jesus in respect of His nearness. He is nearer to you than a brother. In Old Testament times the only one who could be a redeemer was the nearest of kin (Ruth iv.). That was meant to bring out the nearness of Christ's relationship to all who are His.
V. The text is true of Jesus in respect of His steadfastness, His constancy. He never changes, never leaves you. Jesus never gives up any friend.
J. H. Wilson, The Gospel and its Fruit,p. 157.
References: Proverbs 18:24. B. W. Noel, Penny Pulpit,No. 3,633; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iii., No. 120; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,2nd series, p. 116. Proverbs 19:1-3. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs vol. ii., p. 215.