TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE

 “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor, for if they fall, one will lift up his companion.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him.

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

 “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.  And a three fold cord is not quickly broken”  (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NKJV).

 God looked at His creation named Adam and saw that it was not good for him to be alone, and He created a helper comparable to him.  (Genesis 2:18 NKJV).

 David had three warriors called “mighty men” (2 Samuel 23:8) who were his companions.  They were indeed mighty men and were very successful in battle.  Through them, the Lord brought about great victories over the Philistines.  Even though the Philistines were in Bethlehem, David expressed a desire for a “drink of water from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate” (v 15).  These three loyal friends “broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and brought it to David.” (v.16). Though that was a careless request from David, it demonstrated what his friends would do to please him and to fulfill his desire.

 Jesus had three special friends in His inner circle, Peter, James and John.  Many times Jesus took these three with him apart from the other disciples.  One of those friends was so trusted by Jesus that He left His mother, Mary, in John’s care even as He was dying on the cross.

 What do these incidents tell us?  “It is not good to be alone.”  In addition to needing each other, we need to be accountable to one another.  “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs….submitting to one another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:19-21 NKJV).  It isn’t enough to just be with someone, we are to be joined to them in the love of God.  Love will pick up the fallen one; love with have warmth to share with another who is cold; love will defend another who is being attacked by Satan.  Submitting in the fear of God is acknowledging the awesome power of God who has joined us to Himself with the admonition to do likewise to one another.  There is a definite connection between the vertical submission and the horizontal one.  We who are joined to God by Jesus Christ (vertically) are mutually joined to one another (horizontally) in the Lord.  We are “kin”!

 Of course, we know that we are never really alone.  Jesus made us an ironclad promise to always be with us, and we can solidly depend on that in every circumstance under any condition.  In fact, He reminds us in Lamentations 3:22-23 that his “compassions are new every morning.”  I cannot go beyond of my Father’s care!  But God also placed us together on this planet to benefit one another and to work together for His Kingdom.  There is no competition in the work of the Kingdom of God.  The secular corporate world has the dog-eat-dog mentality; not so with Christians.  We belong to the mutual admiration society.  We are to rejoice with him that rejoices, weep with him who cries (Romans 12:15).  We feel each other’s pain, and we are delighted when they are successful.

  Is this your attitude?  Do you care for your fellow Christian as if he were you?  That is what we are told to do in God’s Word.  If we haven’t arrived at that place, it should be our goal to push through the works of the flesh until we reach that kind of God-Love for each other that is found in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”  (Philippians 2:4 NJKV).  “…that the members should have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:25 NKJV).

 “Helping honks.”  Migrating geese fly forty to fifty miles per hour.  Have you noticed how they always fly in formation in order to be helpful to each other?  Their flapping wings during flight create an updraft which aids the birds following behind.  With this kind of cooperation, they can increase their flight time by as much as 70% over what they could maintain if they flew alone.

 I recall hearing a crow screeching very loudly and hovering around my back door.  Even when I approached, it only flew out of my reach.  It flew from limb to limb in my yard, frantically giving out some kind of distress signal.  This went on for several minutes as I tried to determine what in the world was going on.  When I walked around to a flowerbed near my kitchen, I saw the reason for the crow’s dismay.  A fellow crow was down!  It was lying in the flowerbed with one of its wings stretched out and couldn’t seem to get on its feet.  I don’t know what the one in the air expected to do to help the one downed, but it surely was making its presence known to all around.  Eventually the injured crow recovered enough to fly off and the screeching one left too.

 It has been said that the church is the only army that kills its wounded.  Many heroic stories are told of men and women in the armed services who risked their own lives in the heat of battle to save a fallen comrade; sometimes even perishing themselves in the process.  Even when the wounded one’s condition seemed hopeless, he was not left to die alone.  How sad that the church of Jesus Christ doesn’t have that kind of record!  Oh, how God wants that kind of loyal camaraderie among His family!  How sad He must be when those who have fallen on the battlefield after having been attacked by Satan are left to bleed and perish.  How He must weep when instead of helping up the fallen one and restoring him, His other children just wound the one in trouble all the more and leave him on the battlefield to die alone!

 May God help us to live up to His expectations to “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:12-13 NKJV).

 “Everybody needs someone sometime.”  May God help us to be that someone, then when we happen to be the “everybody” we will have “someone” too.

......Delores