God created everything in six days and each day, He looked at what He created and saw that it was good. That is until this moment:
Genesis 2:18
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
Oh, there was plenty to keep busy with. Adam was responsible for cultivating and tending and watching over the Garden of Eden.
Adam wasn’t literally alone. There were all kinds of animals and birds in the garden and he even spent time in-person with God. How could God not be enough for him, right? Why, then, did God say that he was alone?
Well, anyone who has struggled with loneliness knows too well this truth; even if they are surrounded by crowds of people and with lots to do and keep busy with.
God made for Adam a help meet to compliment him. Someone who understood, cohabitated, and co-labored with him. Adam needed that and this is why God said that he was alone. He needed someone like him who could relate to him and live life together with him.
All of us need belonging. We need our tribe; our people. We need to dwell with people who understand and love and support us. We need encouraged and comforted and strengthened. Sometimes, we need rebuked, corrected, and challenged, too.
It is still not good for us to be alone, not even saved with alone in a relationship with God. We need others in our lives!
For some of us, this comes easy. We love having people around us and don’t often find ourselves alone.
For others like myself who are far more introverted, it is a struggle. It is something that we need and something that we were created by God to have, but not something that we naturally desire to do.
We don’t need to force ourselves into crowds of people and to force ourselves to be overwhelmed by social anxiety, but we need to have a few solid Christian friends that we click with and can live life together with.
This is true, authentic discipleship. We are called to follow Jesus ourselves, but also with others. We are to both be disciples and to disciple others. Learning and growing together and simply helping one another to live out our faith together.
It’s easy in this life and in our culture to keep ourselves busy, but busy with things that really don’t matter. It’s easy to not value or prioritize discipleship, but we all desperately need it! To deprive ourselves of it is to miss out on one of the greatest purposes of our lives and to be left empty.
The author of Ecclesiastes wrote:
Ecclesiastes 4:7-12
7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
8 There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless –
a miserable business!
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Two are better than one. Two who bind themselves together with the Lord in pursuit of living by faith in Him? Well, that’s an incredibly strong bond that is not quickly broken! That’s the kind of rope that anchors us to Jesus through life’s storms! Our hope rope!
Hebrews 6:10-1;19-20
10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus never sent any of His disciples out alone, but in pairs. It’s not good for us to be alone. That’s why God has given us each other.
Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
For this time and in this season, He has purposefully and intentionally brought us together in this place of belonging.
Psalm 68:6 (NLT)
God places the lonely in families;
he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
It is good and God-designed that we would live together in community with others; in families. The Hebrew word here bayiṯ translated to ‘families’ in some translations is correctly translated to ‘homes’ in others.
God places us where we belong. A home is not just a building and a family is not just our blood relatives. A true home and a true family is a place where we are free to be ourselves and have all that we need to grow and mature and reach our full potential.
This word also carries the meaning of a dwelling place, an inward habitation, an abiding. God certainly provides these things and so much more!
Not just physically having companionship to do things with or emotionally having someone to share thoughts and feelings with, but spiritually bound together as family by the same Holy Spirit. Spiritually adopted by God becoming family; brothers and sisters adopted by our Heavenly Father.
Romans 8:14-17
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Children of God all very unique from one another, but sharing a powerfully strong, common bond of God’s very Presence because of His Holy Spirit dwelling within us!
Ephesians 4:1-6
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Even as we’re working through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we’re reminded that we are different parts, but brought together to form one body. We are unique from one another and have different abilities and perspectives and giftings, but for the same goal.
God has brought us together as a family. Here’s an interesting thought.
There is not a single 50’s sitcom-type family in the entire Bible. There isn’t a single family that we can look to in the Bible that lived their lives so well that we can lift them up as an example for us to follow.
I’ve been thinking and praying about this one for a while and just can’t find one.
Instead, the Bible is full of very broken and messed up people and families. Most of what the Bible records about their lives wouldn’t be very G-rated. It’s even too sketchy for HBO Max. Like Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun.
Solomon had his literally hundreds of sister wives.
Eli was so fat he fell backward off a chair, broke his neck, and died.
David stole a man’s wife and had him killed. His son raped his sister so his brother killed him to get revenge for it. Oh, I could go on and on about that family’s drama…
God’s very own chosen people started with a family of twelve sons of whom ten planned to kill their one step-brother.
Cain murdered his brother Abel in the very first family ever to exist.
Jesus’ very own brothers didn’t believe in Him (John 7:5). Yes, Jesus had half brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:56, Mark 6:3). Same mom, very different dads.
As Jesus began His public ministry and chose His twelve disciples, His family tried to stop Him.
Mark 3:21;31-35
21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Now we know that His mother, Mary, chose to follow Him and that all four of His brothers eventually did as well. However, in this moment, Jesus was forced to choose to follow His Heavenly Father’s will over the will of his earthly family.
He defined that we can become a family forged by a choice to pursue God and a desire to live out His will for our lives. A faith family; brothers and sisters in Christ.
God was sure to record and pass down to us the fact that these were real people with real issues who really sinned. However, He was also sure to record something else. Every now and then, someone would have just enough trust in God for Him to do something incredible and miraculous!
He was sure to record some examples of people who were placed in families not defined by DNA, but by choice.
Ruth and Naomi. When the time came for Ruth to go back home with her in-laws, she said to Naomi:
Ruth 1:16-18
16 “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
There was David and Jonathan:
1 Samuel 18:1-4
1 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
Jonathan was even sad when the royals would come together to eat and David’s usual seat was empty (1 Samuel 20).
When Jonathan died in battle, David wrote a song and ordered that all of the people of Judah would be taught in. In it, he said:
2 Samuel 1:26
I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.
I could go on and on of faith families that were created and purposed by God. However, we can’t end today without being reminded of one of the greatest faith families that God created.
His church!
When imperfect people receive His salvation and choose to gather together for the purpose of pursing a perfect God… We become the church.
Acts 4:32-35
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Hebrews 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We gather together to draw near to God, to encourage one another, and to spur each other on to love God and people expressed through good deeds. Imperfect people gathering together to love and serve and pursue a perfect God.
That results in more than just belonging within a faith family, but we become the body of Christ, the physical Presence of Jesus, the church.
It’s so easy to get busy and to get into the habit of skipping gathering with our faith family. We must be intentional and purposeful and value gathering together with one another not only for Sunday morning services and church events, but also throughout the week. We need each other!