There is a direct correlation between one’s spiritual health and one’s willingness to engage in regular, meaningful relationships with other believers. Those who have the most difficult time enjoying Jesus and progressing in Christlikeness are those who are isolated from other believers.
This is not a new message for those who have worshiped for long at Providence Bible Fellowship. However, I bring it up again because I’ve recently had the privilege of watching one among us be reawakened to the things of the Lord due to a new habit of close involvement with other believers in the church. It makes me wonder—how many others among us are suffering in a self-imposed exile from meaningful fellowship? According to the Scriptures, we should not be surprised to find that when we are isolated, we suffer great difficulties spiritually.
“Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, "For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and an unhappy business. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him-- a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl 4:7-12). Two are better than one. When we are isolated and fall into sin, discouragement, and doubt, no one knows and therefore no one is there to lift us up.
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22). There is no solo pathway to holiness (Eph 4:7-16). By God’s design, the path that leads to Christlikeness requires companionship. He has made no other way.
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment” (Prov 18:1). This gets to the heart of our motive for isolation. We want our own way. Perhaps, we want to continue in sin and we know that if we meet with someone, it might be exposed. Perhaps, we don’t want to give our valuable time to others. Perhaps, we are introverted and we just don’t naturally gravitate toward time with others. Whatever the flavor of self-seeking, this verse tells us that isolation breaks out against all sound judgment. Why? Because the above passages from Ecclesiastes and 2 Timothy are true: life is harder alone. We are more easily led astray, and we simply cannot grow in godliness with other believers in our lives.
But what does it look like to have meaningful engagement with others? “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:23-25). We can glean several points from these verses. First, meaningful engagement is not simply going to church. Some of the most spiritually isolated people I’ve ever known were at church every time the doors were open. According to these verses, the opposite of neglecting to meet together is NOT simply showing up at church. Many people who go to church are absolutely stagnant spiritually because they are relying on Sunday morning to check the box of meaningful relationships. There simply is not enough time on Sunday mornings to do what this passage calls us to.
Second, meaningful engagement involves meeting together for the expressed purpose of helping one another to grow. Informal fellowship is great, but left to ourselves, most of us will gravitate in our conversations to things other than the Lord. Meaningful engagement is intentional. We are to get together with our minds set on stirring one another up and encouraging one another.
Third, meaningful engagement is Christ-focused. The exhortations to stir one another up and encourage one another are bracketed by references to hope in Christ. When we meet together, Jesus should be the center of our conversation and activity. We stir one another up to love (for Him and for others) and good works, the godly expression of love. This is a premier way that we love one another as His hands, feet, and voice (John 13:34-35; 14:12).
A suggestion: meet with one or two others to read the Bible together, to pray, to share joys and struggles, and to point one another to Jesus in all these things. People who do this grow. They are stirred up in their affections for Jesus. Plain and simple. You need people and they need you.
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