You Can’t Do it Alone

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NKJV

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone and falls. For he has no one to help him up.

¹¹ Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Man is built for relationships and those relationships are important.  I would imagine that as you look around and watch what is happening you might find yourself wondering about whether some people are building relationships.

The most important relationship in a person’s life is to be with their Creator.  That relationship for mankind was interrupted in the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned. We have spoken about this at different times.  We are sinners because sin entered the world.  However, God made a way from the foundation of the world through His Son Jesus Christ.  Jesus came, died and rose again so that our sin would no longer separate us from God.  The only thing we must do is believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.  You remember Paul’s teaching to those in Rome in Romans 10:9-10 NKJV=

 ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

If we get this relationship right, then He provides a way for us to build on other relationships with those around us.  The next relationship, after the most important relationship in a person’s life with their Creator, is with others

The relationships of a husband and wife, parent and children, friends, co-workers,

and neighbors.  These relationships occur in the home, the workplace, the neighborhood, the church.

John who was an Apostle and one of the disciples of Christ who wrote not only the Gospel of John but also 3 of what are known as General Epistle, also known as Apostolic Letters around 85-95 A.D. probably from Ephesus.

In the Epistle of 1 John his purpose was to warn about the increasing threat of false teachings and to reassure Christians of their faith and love in Jesus Christ.  It was written to combat false teachings that had to do with the denial that Jesus had a genuine human body

Chapters 1-2, John reassures believers explaining, “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1:5).

He said that if sins were confessed God would cleanse them, because Jesus is the propitiation for “the whole world” (2:2).  That is, He by His death, burial and resurrection acted to gain (actually) regain the favor or goodwill of God for each one of us.

Because John was aware of the continuing attack of false teachings, he urged believers not to love and follow the world because it was not of the Father, and would ultimately pass away. Let me remind you that discernment is always necessary to confront the constant attacks of heresy.

Then in chapters 3-4, John teaches about the love of God and that through His love He sent Jesus, “To destroy the works of the devil” (3:8).

We are reminded as believers we should love each other not only with words but also, “in deed and truth” (3:18), as Jesus commanded.

It is in Chapter 5, John exhorts Christians to live by faith because through our faith in Christ we overcome the wickedness of the world.  In addition, John writes one of the most powerful and assuring statements concerning the work of Jesus on the cross,

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (vs. 13).

John wanted all believers, and if you don’t know Him yet today, to know 100%, that because of faith and trust in Jesus Christ they would spend all of eternity with Him.

Look with me for a moment at 1 John 3:1-3 and I am using the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

¹ See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

² Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 

³ And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

John is telling us that God loves us and we are His children if we know Christ as our savior.  It is true that God loves the world, His word tells us that in John 3:16

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

There is a difference from being loved by God and being a child of God.  You see we know that God loves the world and that love caused Him to send His son.  Being a child of God provides the privileges of being a son or a daughter.  In Mathew 7:9-11 NKJV Jesus said-

⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 

¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Jesus is showing that we know how to treat our own children and that even more God knows how and provides for us as His children. 

When we consider the relationship, we have with God through Jesus Christ it becomes easy to consider the relationships we should have in our own life. That those relationships should be strong and encouraging.  We need one another in all the relationships of life.  Those strong and lasting ones that make us strong.

The relationship with God provides the strength and peace needed in this life.  It is foundational in all of our other relationships.  We can’t do it alone as we live this life.  We need the Lord and we need those to whom He has placed in our lives. 

In God’s Grace,

Elbert Nasworthy