(I. Live to the Lord.)
Do you ever feel lonely? Everyone feels lonely at times. Some people feel lonely all the time – that's sad. But sometimes we like being alone. In fact, we might even think that it would be nice to be alone all the time. Then no one would bother us, no one would tell us what to do, and we could do just as we pleased. But it doesn't work that way because it's not the way God made it.
Think of it this way. Imagine that you are a single bead. We'll put you alone in a jar. Now you're all by yourself. No one will bother you there. But it also means that no one will help you. To be alone in a jar means that no one will tell you what to do. But it also means that no one tells you good things and helps you.
The fact of the matter is God didn't make us to be alone. When there was only one person on earth after creation, God looked at it all and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make someone for him.” He made us to be with others.
Think of it as many beads put together in the jar. They are individual entities, yet they are all together, too. But there is a problem in their being together. They're all mixed up, jumbled together in one spot, restricted. They just sit there on top of each other, crowding each other, and cannot do what they were made for.
It's somewhat the same with people. Because we are sinners we do not and cannot live together as God intended. That certainly became evident right after Adam and Eve sinned. The harmony that they shared with each other in God was shattered – in two ways. First – their disobedience in eating the fruit tore them away from God. Secondly, it ripped them apart from one another. They saw they were naked and ran from each other. The perfect harmony was shattered and their relationship with each other changed drastically. Every time we sin the same thing happens.
Instead of helping one another as God made it to be, we hurt one another. Instead of giving to each other, we take away. Instead of loving, we hate. Instead of doing all to God and His glory, we do what we want for ourselves. The harmony is broken between God and us, and us with each other. Sin prevents us from being what God created us to be towards Him and towards each other. You could say we're Together yet alone or apart like beads in a jar.
But God saw the problem that we could never get ourselves out of and in love provided the remedy – His Son. The lesson from Romans says, “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” Christ was sent as the solution to the problem. We couldn't remedy sin and the shattered harmony it brought into our lives. So He, the Lord, did by entering our life. With His death for sin and resurrection He fulfilled the holy God's requirements and brought us back to God. That new life makes it possible for us to be what we can be towards God and each other. He did it for us who are yet alive, and He did it for those who have already fallen asleep in death – all who would turn to Him in faith for the remedy. In it He binds us to Him so that we are never alone together again.
Think of it this way. We'll let this string represent Christ and the needle stand for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings Christ into our lives (thread the needle and string through a bead). We become a part of Christ. Then the Holy Spirit brings others (more beads) to know Christ. We find ourselves united with Christ and with each other. Christ holds us together in Him and in a way that we live with each other not just for ourselves; we're living for Christ. Or, as Paul says of believers, “None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Never alone together.
So, dear friends, as children of God redeemed from sin by Christ, live to the Lord and you will live in harmony with each other for if we are living to the Lord who created us for each other, we can't live alone. Think of your family in faith as a string of beads united by Christ. Think of our church as a string of beads united by Christ. See yourself with your friends together in Christ. You are not here to live alone and to yourself . And when you feel alone, Christ will connect you with others, perhaps someone who needs you as much as you need him or her. In Christ, believers are never alone together as they live to the Lord.
(II. Always be willing to forgive.)
But we are not yet in heaven. At the present we live in an imperfect world. And as we live together in it, problems arise between us. Paul was writing about it; Jesus, too, was addressing it in the Gospel – problems between fellow believers. What happens when you have a problem with a fellow Christian and he does something against you? How will you react as you live to the Lord?
Of this the story is told of a little girl telling her mother, “I'm never going to speak to my brother again.” She was angry because he had called her a name. Her mother asked, “Aren't God's children supposed to forgive one another?” I'm tired of forgiving him,” the little girl replied. “Why do I always have to forgive?”
A little child's problem, yes, but Peter once came to Jesus with a similar thought on his mind. He asked, “Lord, how often do I have to forgive someone who sins against me? Is seven times often enough?” Jesus said, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Why did Jesus say seventy-seven times? Hardly ever would anybody sin against us that often. He meant that we should always be willing to forgive, no matter how often some one we live together with, especially a brother in faith, sins against us.
Then the Lord told a story. He said, “Once there was a man who owed his king more than he could ever pay back. So the king decided to sell the man and his wife and children. Kings could do that in those days. But when the man begged the king not to do it, the king, because he was compassionate, forgave him and said he would not have to pay anything at all. The man was so glad.
But then he went and put another man into prison just because he owed him a little and couldn't pay right away. When the king heard about this, he was angry. He told his soldiers to bring the unkind man back to him. The king said to him, “You wicked servant, I forgave all that you owed me. Couldn't you have been good to others as I was good to you?” He put the wicked man into jail and said, “Stay there until you have paid everything to me!” Then Jesus said, “That's the way my heavenly Father will treat you if you are not willing to forgive your brother from your heart.”
Forgiveness – it's the key element in our lives together since we are never alone. All our relationships, with God and with others, are rooted in it. So the Scriptures say, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ep.4:32).
Forgiveness - do we live in it? Only when we fully understand what happened between us and God through the Savior will we live together, practicing the limitless forgiveness the Father has shown us in Christ. If we live to the Lord, we are always willing to forgive.
(III. Trust that God will make good come out of evil.)
Need an example? Consider Joseph. His brothers wanted him out of their lives because their father loved him most. Then Joseph told their father the bad things they were doing. Besides that Joseph had some dreams in which God made clear to him that he would rule over his older brothers. “We'll fix him,” they thought. And with that Joseph's jealous brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt . Their evil deed got rid of him, so they thought.
But in Egypt God's good was taking shape. Joseph was promoted from slave to prime minister and 20 years later ended up saving his brothers when they came to him for food. It would have been so easy to hold a grudge against them for all the pain they caused. How easy it would be to refuse to forgive them. In fact, the brothers were sure that was going to happen when their father died. So they said to each other, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?”
What if we decide to remain angry with someone, or nurse a grudge, or don't forgive? What if we try to get even or punish someone who sins against us? Then we're forgetting that God didn't remain angry or hold a grudge against us. We're forgetting that Jesus chose to take our sin upon Himself without cost to us. And we're forgetting that God treated us as sinners in a loving, compassionate way – as if we'd never sinned – by punishing His own Son on the cross instead of us. Nursing a grudge or refusing to forgive completely puts one in danger of rejecting the Savior's mercy. So friend, be ware of such an attitude.
Instead, Joseph replied, “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Under God's authority good comes out of evil. It's hard for us to understand how God makes even the evil deeds of evil men work good for His own. Our question always seems to be, “Why did God permit it to happen?” Joseph didn't see till years later. Meanwhile, he had to step forward in faith, trusting that God had the situation in hand and would make good come out of evil.
Likewise we judge nothing before the time but await God's outcome. And just as the greatest good came to us out of Jesus' death, we trust that God will make good come from any evil in our lives. For we are Never Alone Together and with Him at our side nothing can be against us. God grant it to us for Jesus' sake. Amen