Lesson sequence
Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship
Sirach 37:1–6; Sirach 37:7–15; Sirach 37:16–26; Sirach 37:27–31
Sirach 37:1–6 warns that spoken friendship is not always loyal friendship. These sayings contrast empty claims, painful betrayal, and the duty to remember a true friend. This lesson also brings together Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer, Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people, Know your limits and restrain overeating.
Before you teach
This passage comes from Sirach, a wisdom book in the Catholic additional books. The verses move through short sayings about friends, grief, deceit, affliction, battle, and riches. Together they expose false companionship and end with a command about how a friend should be remembered.
Explain the central teaching of Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship, using two details from the reading. This passage teaches that true friendship is shown by loyalty, not just by words or advantage. This passage teaches that careful counsel includes testing advisers, listening honestly within, and asking the Most High to direct the way in truth. This passage teaches that true wisdom is shown not by clever words alone but by counsel that is trustworthy, beneficial, and fruitful for both the teacher and the people. This passage teaches that wisdom includes knowing what is harmful for you and refusing uncontrolled appetite.
Your lesson sequence
Use the teaching outline below for each session, with these reading and activity choices.
Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship
Sirach 37:1–6
This passage teaches that true friendship is shown by loyalty, not just by words or advantage.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 37:1–6. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer
Sirach 37:7–15
This passage teaches that careful counsel includes testing advisers, listening honestly within, and asking the Most High to direct the way in truth.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 37:7–15. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people
Sirach 37:16–26
This passage teaches that true wisdom is shown not by clever words alone but by counsel that is trustworthy, beneficial, and fruitful for both the teacher and the people.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 37:16–26. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Know your limits and restrain overeating
Sirach 37:27–31
This passage teaches that wisdom includes knowing what is harmful for you and refusing uncontrolled appetite.
Try together: Use the evidence sheet for Sirach 37:27–31. Record key details, compare the opening and closing of this reading, and prepare a short explanation with a supporting Bible reference for each point.
Welcome: Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship
5 minIntroduce “Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship”, “Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer”, “Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people”, “Know your limits and restrain overeating” and locate Sirach 37:1–6; Sirach 37:7–15; Sirach 37:16–26; Sirach 37:27–31. This passage teaches that true friendship is shown by loyalty, not just by words or advantage. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for. Choose the reading for today’s session from the sequence above.
Sirach 37:1, Sirach 37:4, Sirach 37:6
Read and explain the passage
12 minDistinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship (Sirach 37:1–6): The first saying warns that many people may speak as if they are friends, yet some are only friends “in name”. The contrast is between what is said and what is true. Sirach begins by teaching readers not to measure friendship by claims alone.
Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer (Sirach 37:7–15): The passage begins by warning that not every counsellor is trustworthy. Someone may praise counsel itself while still giving advice for personal advantage. The reader is told to beware of such a person and to know his interest beforehand, because his real concern may be for himself, not for you.
Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people (Sirach 37:16–26): The opening gives an order for living. Reason is to begin every work, and counsel is to come before action. That means thinking and guidance are placed at the start, not at the end. The next verses then move to the heart and to weighty opposites, showing that choices matter.
Know your limits and restrain overeating (Sirach 37:27–31): The first saying is personal: “test your soul in your life”. The point is to examine yourself, “see what is evil for it”, and “don’t give in to it”. Wisdom here is not passive. It asks for honest judgement about what is harmful and a deliberate refusal to yield to it.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship”, “Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer”, “Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people”, “Know your limits and restrain overeating”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Sirach 37:1, Sirach 37:7, Sirach 37:8, Sirach 37:16, Sirach 37:17, Sirach 37:18, Sirach 37:27
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “What is the difference between saying you are a friend and being more than a friend “in name”?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. This passage teaches that wisdom includes knowing what is harmful for you and refusing uncontrolled appetite. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Sirach 37:1, Sirach 37:19, Sirach 37:20, Sirach 37:21, Sirach 37:22, Sirach 37:23, Sirach 37:24, Sirach 37:27
Make and respond: Words and images response sheet
12 minWork on “Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship: Words and images response sheet”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship”, “Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer”, “Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people”, “Know your limits and restrain overeating” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Sirach 37:1, Sirach 37:16, Sirach 37:31
Closing: return to Know your limits and restrain overeating
3 minRevisit Sirach 37:27–31. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about Know your limits and restrain overeating and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Sirach 37:27, Sirach 37:29, Sirach 37:31
Questions to explore
What is the difference between saying you are a friend and being more than a friend “in name”?
Compare the spoken claim in Sirach 37:1 with the warning that some friendship is only a title.
Sirach 37:1
How is the wise person different from the merely clever speaker?
Compare the person in Sirach 37:19–21 with the wise person in Sirach 37:22–24.
Sirach 37:19, Sirach 37:20, Sirach 37:21, Sirach 37:22, Sirach 37:23, Sirach 37:24
What two actions are joined together in the command to “test your soul in your life”?
Look closely at Sirach 37:27 and connect examining yourself with seeing what is evil for you and not giving in to it.
Sirach 37:27
Make, think or respond
Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship: Words and images response sheet
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “A repeated word or image”, “Its verse reference”, “What it expresses”.
- Read Sirach 37:1–6; Sirach 37:7–15; Sirach 37:16–26; Sirach 37:27–31. Use “Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship”, “Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer”, “Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people”, “Know your limits and restrain overeating” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Choose one image and add a short written response or a simple drawing. Explain how it connects with the passage.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Sirach 37: Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “Distinguish professed friendship from loyal companionship”, “Choose advisers without ignoring conscience and prayer”, “Wise counsel must benefit both teacher and people”, “Know your limits and restrain overeating” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Sirach 37:1–6; Sirach 37:7–15; Sirach 37:16–26; Sirach 37:27–31. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Sirach 37:1–6; Sirach 37:7–15; Sirach 37:16–26; Sirach 37:27–31. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Sirach 37
1 Every friend will say, “I also am his friend”; but there is a friend which is only a friend in name.
2 Isn’t there a grief in it even to death when a companion and friend is turned into an enemy?
3 O wicked imagination, why were you formed to cover the dry land with deceit?
4 There is a companion who rejoices in the gladness of a friend, but in time of affliction will be against him.
5 There is a companion who for the belly’s sake labors with his friend, yet in the face of battle will carry his buckler.
6 Don’t forget a friend in your soul. Don’t be unmindful of him in your riches.
7 Every counselor extols counsel, but some give counsel in their own interest.
8 Let your soul beware of a counselor, and know in advance what is his interest (for he will take counsel for himself), lest he cast the lot against you,
9 and say to you, “Your way is good.” Then he will stand near you, to see what will happen to you.
10 Don’t take counsel with one who looks askance at you. Hide your counsel from those who are jealous of you.
11 Don’t consult with a woman about her rival, with a coward about war, with a merchant about business, with a buyer about selling, with an envious man about thankfulness, with an unmerciful man about kindliness, with a sluggard about any kind of work, with a hireling in your house about finishing his work, or with an idle servant about much business. Pay no attention to these in any matter of counsel.
12 But rather be continually with a godly man, whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, who in his soul is as your own soul, and who will grieve with you, if you fail.
13 Make the counsel of your heart stand, for there is no one more faithful to you than it.
14 For a man’s soul is sometimes inclined to inform him better than seven watchmen who sit on high on a watch-tower.
15 Above all this ask the Most High that he may direct your way in truth.
16 Let reason be the beginning of every work. Let counsel go before every action.
17 As a token of the changing of the heart,
18 four kinds of things rise up: good and evil, life and death. That which rules over them continually is the tongue.
19 There is one who is clever and the instructor of many, and yet is unprofitable to his own soul.
20 There is one who is subtle in words, and is hated. He will be destitute of all food.
21 For grace was not given to him from the Lord, because he is deprived of all wisdom.
22 There is one who is wise to his own soul; and the fruits of his understanding are trustworthy in the mouth.
23 A wise man will instruct his own people. The fruits of his understanding are trustworthy.
24 A wise man will be filled with blessing. All those who see him will call him happy.
25 The life of a man is counted by days. The days of Israel are innumerable.
26 The wise man will inherit confidence among his people. His name will live forever.
27 My son, test your soul in your life. See what is evil for it, and don’t give in to it.
28 For not all things are profitable for all men. Not every soul has pleasure in everything.
29 Don’t be insatiable in any luxury. Don’t be greedy in the things that you eat.
30 For overeating brings disease, and gluttony causes nausea.
31 Because of gluttony, many have perished, but he who takes heed shall prolong his life.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.