Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? … Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. … Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. … My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

1Co 15:33; Am 3:3, 1Th 5:11; 1Pe 4:8-10; Pr 22:24-27; Pr 16:28, Pr 27:10; Pr 17:9, Jh 15:12-14

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.