Christian Living

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  Based on Eccles. 4:9-12

      History is filled with stories of how feuding people become peaceful partners because of the power of love in the lives of two people.  One of the most famous in American history is that of an 18-year-old Indian girl Pocahontas and the Englishman John Rolfe.  The Virginia colony was very close to war with the Indian leader Powhatan.  They were in the midst of negotiations when the letter came from John Rolfe asking for permission to marry Pocahontas.  It was a pleasant surprise to both sides, for they were heading for a showdown, and now everything was changed.  It was the first wedding between a white man and an Indian, and both sides were pleased for it would mean peace between their peoples. 

       It was a glorious feasting affair, and the first time that the whites and Indians could relax in each other's presence for several years.  The Indians brought much food, and so it was the first time in as many years that the whites had been well-fed.  Pocahontas had become a Christian, and she took on the Christian name of Rebecca, and she and her new husband went to England where she became the belle of London society.  Neither of these two people could have done much for their people alone, but the two together made an impact that brought peace and profit to all.  They illustrate the truth of our text that two are better than one. 

       Two dollars are better than one dollar, and two heads are better than one.  Jesus was single, but he chose disciples to be with them.  He had no intention of trying to reach the world by himself.  Paul was single, but he was always seeking for companions and partners in the ministry.  Without Dr. Luke being by his side we would not have the record of his life and journeys. God sent both His Son and His Spirit into the world, and we need both to accomplish God's purpose because two are better than one. 

        Jesus sent out His disciples two by two for good reason, and we demand a second in parliamentary procedure because at least two people have to be in agreement to make anything worth debating.  An idea that cannot get at least two people interested is not worth the time of any group.  It is just another way of saying that two are better than one.  Show me the man or woman who has ever become great alone, and I will show you a fictional character. History will not support the idea that you can become great alone. Everybody who is anybody needs somebody as a partner.  Even Cruso needed his Friday, and the Lone Ranger needed his Tonto.  Where would Abbot be without Costello, and Laurel without Hardy? 

       In the Christian world we see that all great evangelists had their partners. Moody had his Sankey, and Billy Graham had his George Beverly Shea.  But there is no point in endlessly trying to prove the obvious that two are better than one.  It is almost as self-evident as the saying that two are more than one. Everything about this text is rather obvious.  Two can get more work done than one.  Two can handle a problem better than one.  Two can keep warm better than one.   Two can defend themselves better than one.  It is not an absolute, for two masters are not better than one, and Jesus said you can not serve two masters.  It is not an absolute truth, but it is true, and the challenge is to see how it should change our lives in relationship to other people, and especially other people we work with daily. 

        The essence of the text is that everybody needs somebody.  We all need support and help, and so we all need a friend and companion.  If Christ is going to transform our daily work, or any other part of our life, there are two things that must be happening in our lives at all times.  We must be receptive to help from others, and we must be responsive with help that is needed by others.  In other words, we need to practice in every situation the truth that two are better than one.  This two-fold process is basically love in action.  You are to be ever recruiting partners in life because two are better than one for you, and you are to be ever recognizing the need for a partner in others because two are better than one for them. 

        This two-fold process of receptiveness and responsiveness will make this truth very practical and helpful in all aspects of your life, and in all of your relationships.  It is really just another way of looking at how to do good to all men, for by receiving help and giving help you do just that.  Let's look at each of these and see how they work.

I. BEING RECEPTIVE OF HELP.

       Our text says that two are better than one for profits in work, for provision in meeting needs, and for protection in conflict.  The wise person, therefore, is one who rejects the idea of isolation and total independence as the best life style.  The one who chooses that approach to life is saying that one is better than two, or any other number.  This is the satanic approach to life.  It says, "I do not need God or anybody else.  I am self-sufficient and independent.  All I need is myself alone."  Satan refused to be receptive to the idea of partnership with God.  He wanted to be God, and so he tempted Adam and Eve to renounce their partnership and become gods on their own.  Why share the power and the glory with anybody when you can become your own god?  This is the big lie of Satan. 

       Nietzsche bought into this idea and became obsessed with keeping himself isolated from others lest they contaminate his power and independence.  His goal was to have no need of anybody.  He would only have a star-like relation to other people.  A star can be seen by another, but yet be far distant.  Where did this egoistic isolation lead him?  It was to the mad house.  God did not make us to be alone.  He said it was not good for man to be alone.  That was the first negative in God's ideal creation.  We are made to be social creatures, and that is why two are better than one.  Nobody can be all God wants them to be by being alone.  We must all be receptive to help just as every part of the body must be receptive to the help of other parts of the body.  That is the only way the body can be all it can be.  One hand cannot applaud alone.  It must be open to receive the partnership of the other hand, and then the two can get the job done.
 
      Aesop tells the story of the members of the body getting sick and tired of the stomach getting all the food and doing so little work.  They decided to go on strike and not cooperate with the stomach.  The hands refused to put the food to the mouth, and the mouth refused to take it in, and the teeth would not chew it anyway.  They all decided to go independent.  In a few days they began to doubt the wisdom of their approach.  The hands could hardly move, and the legs could not support the body.  The mouth was parched and dry. The strike was called off because they discovered that the body was not made to be independent.  Only as each member cooperated with the others could any of them fulfill their potential and experience the best of life. 

       Because two are better than one we have an obligation to be receptive to anyone who can add their one to ours and make two.  It is a part of wise living to be a cooperative person ever open to help.  On the job this means that that Christian needs to swallow the pride that makes them feel they do not need the help of others.  This is especially the case when it comes to the help of non-believers.  Christ can transform your work just by getting you to realize that by being receptive to the help of non-believers you can open the door to their interest in the things of Christ.  Paul needed the help of pagans to accomplish the plan of God for his life, and he was not afraid to ask for their help.  Because of this receptive spirit Paul was able to open doors into the Gentile kingdom for the Word of God.  Solomon got much pagan help in building the temple to the glory of God.

       The church and all Christian relationships are built by cooperation.  A theme that runs all through the New Testament is that Christians are members one of another, and so all that they do is to be on an interdependent level of one for another.  We are to love one another, have peace with one another, honor one another, not judge one another, edify one another, receive one another, greet one another, serve one another, bear one another's burdens, be kind to one another, submit to one another, and comfort one another.  There are many others that make it clear that two are better than one.  All that is good about the Christian life is found in the relationship we have in the body with one another.  It is the support and encouragement we receive from one another that makes the Christian life precious.  We cannot be all God wants us to be without one another.

        The secret of getting Sunday to carry over into Monday is to recognize that his principle is one that will fit the work place as well.  We cannot cooperate with the worldly person in their sin and folly, but we can find common ground where we can appreciate their help and be open to receive that help.  We need to recognize that non-believers have skills and social values that are of value to the believer.  Christians and non-Christians work together to build much that is made in this world.  Some unknown poet put it, All have a share in the beauty; All have a part in the plan; What does it matter what duty Falls to the lot of a man? Someone has blended the plaster; Someone has carried the stone; Never the man, nor the master Ever has builded alone; Making a roof for the weather, Building a house for the king; Only by working together Have men accomplished a thing.

      If we believe this, it means the Christian has to take the principle of cooperation into the work place and be a part of the answer rather than part of the problem.  If two are better than one, then the Christian had better seek every way they can to be a partner.  I never did win my atheist boss to Christ. I worked with him for 4 years, and I did leave him with a clear message that Christians can be good partners with non-Christians in the work place.  We did many projects together, and we benefited one another.  I was open to receive his help, and he was open to receive mine.  That is the kind of relationship we need to strive for in the work place.  I know from experience that it makes the work place so much more enjoyable for everyone. 

       This principle applies in all of life.  Seek help from others, for by so doing you create a partnership that is a mutual benefit.  All of us have benefited because John Newton, the author of amazing grace, applied this truth in relationship to William Cowper.  In 1773 Cowper was suffering another of his many spells of mental derangement where he wanted to kill himself.  Newton asked Cowper if he would help him write a hymn book that would make church services more evangelical.  This was the beginning of one of the most beautiful of all historic friendships.  These two men worked together for 8 years in producing the Olney Hymns.  Cowper, instead of being dead, wrote 68 of the hymns in that collection, and they have made him immortal in the church.  Some of them we still sing, such as God Moves In A Mysterious Way, and There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood.

       Had Newton not been receptive to his help, the Christian world may have lost one of its best hymn writers.  Not only that, but Cowper went on after this project to write his first book of poems in 1785, and this made him the most favorably talked about author in England.  It was all because he had a friend who recognized that two are better than one.  All our work in life can be transformed by being receptive to the help of others.  The other side of the coin is-

II. BEING RESPONSIVE WITH HELP.

       There are always two perspectives in a party of two.  There is the partner who falls, and there is the partner who helps the fallen up.  We have looked at the need to be willing to receive help when we have fallen, or are in some need.  We have to be willing to be dependent and open to receive the help of others.  But this is only half of the role of a partnership.  You must also be willing to be the helper, and the one who comes to the rescue to lift and support someone else when they are down.  This involves an active role of seeking to find those who need to go from being one to being two. 

       This means a more active and aggressive role in applying this truth that two are better than one.  It is not just being willing and open to receive help, but it is actively seeking people who need help and responding to that need.  It means a striving to relieve the burden of oneness where ever you find it by an active cooperation.  Nansen and Johansen were polar explorers and they came to a point where their survival depended upon the shooting and eating of their own dogs.  Neither had the heart to shoot his own dog, and so they exchanged their dogs, and each sadly and silently went off and shot the other's dog.  It was an awful experience, but they demonstrated how two are better than one for survival.  People have different feelings about many things, and they need other people to help them through difficult situations. A great way to help others is to be willing to do things for them that they do not like to do themselves. 

       Charles Darwin had an impact on the world because he proclaimed a view of life that changed history.  He painted a picture of nature that made it red in tooth and claw.  It was the survival of the fittest, and the weak would not make it.  Life is a struggle, and competition is the name of the game.  This kind of thinking justified the use of children in slave labor in the Industrial Revolution.  Why not get out of them all you can, and if they die in the process that is a matter of the survival of the fittest.  All prejudice and social evils could be justified, for they were but human expressions of the laws of nature where the strong dominate the weak.

        Darwin's doctrine was just what the exploiters of the world needed to justify all of their inhumanity to man.  His writings became the bible for all who would exploit inferiors.  Social Darwinism developed which said that the same laws, which govern nature and evolution govern social life.  That meant that the superior must dominate the inferior.  Competition is the key to success, and only those who compete well will survive.  It is a dog eat dog world in nature, and that is what it has to be in the realm of man as well. 

      Peter Kropotkins was the first reputable scientist to repudiate Darwin. He wrote a book in 1896 called Mutual Aid.  In it he describes the force in nature that called for a close dependency and cooperation.  There is an interdependency that runs all through nature that is consistently saying that two are better than one.  More and more scientist began to agree that nature does not just reveal competition, but also the tremendous power and value of cooperation.  The African crocodile, after a hearty dinner, rests on the banks of the river with its mouth wide open.  Several kinds of birds dash across its tongue and teeth picking out shreds of meat.  He gets a free tooth cleaning, and they get a free meal.  Everybody is a winner.  There are many such examples of cooperation in nature. 

     Kropotkins showed that nature was loaded with mutual aid, and where the strong did not destroy the weak, but where they worked together for mutual benefit and survival.  Many began to see that nature is not all about survival of the fittest only, but about mutual dependency. Nature became an example of the truth that two are better than one, and of the need for others help for survival and for a meaningful life. This movement toward a different perspective of nature had a major impact. Key leaders of radical Darwinism even changed their tune. Thomas Huxley, for example, repudiated his gladiator theory of existence and admitted that nature not only revealed the survival of the fittest, but also the striving by cooperation to fit as many as possible for survival.

     Biologists began to focus on this side and discovered that even the single celled amoeba sought out the companionship of other amoeba, and revealing that there is a social appetite in all living things. Other studies revealed that all plants and animals exhibit an automatic mutualism, which is a life of cooperation, making two better than one. The fittest who survive are not those who are rugged individualists who trample others down and care only for themselves, but rather those who care for others as well as themselves. Experiments with gold fish showed that when a toxic silver was given to them in isolation they all quickly died.  But if this same fatal dose was given to a group together they secreted a slime that diluted the toxic poison that enabled them to live much longer, and had they been in nature where rain could have diluted it even more they could have all survived.

       Nature was shown to teach not only the survival of the fittest but of the friendliest.  Those who seek companionship among all creatures are the most likely to survive, and the loner is the most likely to be the first to perish.  In 1944 a group of 15 distinguished biologists published a statement in Proceedings Of The Philosophical Society Of Texas, which said, "The probability of survival of individual living things increases with the degree in which they harmoniously adjust themselves to each other and to their
environment." 

      Ashley Montague in his book On Being Human says the essence of life can be expressed in one word-cooperation, or as Solomon put it-two are better than one.  Science is telling us that nature has a definition of sin.  It is non-cooperation with others that hurts them and you.  This fits Satan's attitude toward God and that of Adam and Eve in the fall.  Nature confirms the revelation God has given in His Word.  His works confirm His words. Cooperation is the key, not only to life, but to the good life.  Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  He felt like two all the time.  To be Christ-like is to never be alone.  Jesus is the One who makes every Christian two.  He is our Companion who promises to never leave us nor forsake us. 

       In Christ we are never alone, and to be aware of this is the key to so much of the Christian life.  Being good, or doing good to all men is hard, but it is made possible when we recognize we are not alone.  Christ is with us and is pleased by our attempts to be of service in all situations.  Ruth Calkins wonders aloud in her poem.  She writes, "You know, Lord, how I serve you With great emotional fervor In the limelight. You know how eagerly I speak for you At a woman's club. You know how I effervesce when I promote A fellowship group. You know my genuine enthusiasm At a Bible study. But how would I react, I wonder If you pointed to a basin of water And asked me to wash the calloused feet Of a bent and wrinkled old woman Day after day, Month after month, In a room where nobody saw And nobody knew."

      There are many things hard for the Christian to do when there is no recognition, but if we could only grasp that we are recognized by Christ, and that we never do anything alone, but are always made two with His presence, then we could do far more.  We would be motivated to do the things we get no credit for because they please our Partner and Companion.  The key to success in the Christian life is being always aware that with Christ we are two, and two are always better than one.

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