Proverbs 27 Friendly wounds

To be sure, it hurts deeply if a friend rebukes us. To have our sin exposed can make us feel raw and want to withdraw. It is never easy to come face-to-face with a sin and agree with God about our heart. Most of us are more willing to ignore those sins for as long as we can, because the alternative is uncomfortable. Even painful.
What happens though, when we leave that sin to fester? We run the risk of allowing our hearts to harden towards God. How much more pain do we allow ourselves  when we continue to go along in our sin?
 Can we truly call someone a friend who would knowingly allow that to happen? We must be careful in our friendships that we are not knowingly allowing a friend to remain in sin just so we don't "offend" them. For, by doing that, we are is essentially becoming an enemy to them by multiplying kisses (or untruths) which are leading them to hardened hearts. We must care enough about our friends to be honest with them (in LOVE)  about wrongdoing.
Equally important,  is our honest assessment of the friends we are seeking counsel from. Those friends that we choose to seek advice from should be wise and bold in their faith. We should be so careful to only turn to those we know will also seek the will of God for us and be willing to offend us if we need them to.We should be careful to  surround ourselves with friends who are willing to "wound" us so that our sin can be exposed and properly dealt with.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another"