The Strength and Warmth of Christian Fellowship - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 NKJV

The Strength and Warmth of Christian Fellowship
This is a text typically used for weddings. But the author obviously has a broader scope in mind when he writes about relationships and their blessings.

Right in the first sentence he talks about effort. It does indeed take effort to maintain a relationship well. This applies in principle to all situations "under the sun" in which we are put together as human beings. But relationships among believers should be worth special effort: in a Christian marriage and family, in the assembly, and in the Lord's work.

In each of these relationships, it is necessary from time to time to recall the biblical guidelines by which we should live and work together. And when something happens, some disturbance? Then one should take the initiative and approach the other. If mistakes have been made, if one has become guilty toward the other, there is always the way of confession and forgiveness. This effort actually has a good reward!

But even without such complications, it is worthwhile not to go the way alone. The preacher mentions the danger of falling. Who does not know this problem? How good, then, if there is a second to lift him up! And in an increasingly digitized and morally cold world, we also need the warmth of brotherly love. Like Peter, we do not want to seek the "warmth" of the coal fire of the unbelieving world (Jn. 18:18). Rather, this warmth should be provided by the fellowship of believers.

Let us not forget that in the end it is the "threefold cord" that holds. We ourselves disappoint others, others disappoint us. But if our relationships are grounded in the Lord and strengthened by Him, they will not break, even in times of crisis.

-- Frank Ulrich