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Avail Yourselves of the Gift of One Another!

We are not designed to fight alone.

The Christian life is one pockmarked with trouble, trial and difficulty. It's also the experience of humanity at large, but being a Christian adds to it. We go through temptations and trials and troubles specifically due to our faith in Jesus, alongside those experienced by others in this life. Going through this can lead to a life of fear, loneliness and pain that we keep all to ourselves, and convince ourselves that we alone know what it's like to feel like we feel and be what we are.

But this is complete nonsense. Let's search the Word of God.

"Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." - 1 Pet. 5:9

This verse ought to be a source of massive comfort to each of us. Peter, speaking specifically of facing the great enemy of saints, the Devil himself, wants to seek to remind his readers in their persecution, loneliness, fear, bereavement, danger, trial, tribulation, anxiety, stress, pain, bitterness, anger, hopelessness and helplessness, something very, very important:

You are not alone.

Now, before dealing with what I actually want to deal with, it's important to first make this point; God never leaves us. He is with us always, and will never leave us nor forsake us, because He has joined us together with Christ, and would never leave nor forsake Him... again. Jesus, upon the Cross and without severing the mystery of the Trinity, was abandoned by God. Stricken, cut off, forsaken by Him. And He did it so that YOU will never have to experience that, my Christian friend. Rejoice in the knowledge that because you are one with Christ, you are at peace with God, and He will never have reason, given your absolute justification and and total forgiveness of sins, to abandon you... ever. Praise be to God.

However, the main thing I want to talk about is actually what it means for our brothers and sisters all over the world to be experiencing the same things we are.

That's what I want to deal with. So let's.

To be a Christian is to suffer

Part and parcel of being a Christian is that you are going to suffer in this world. We are promised this in the scriptures time and time again. Just a few references to back this up are Acts 14:22, 2 Tim. 3:12, 1 Pet. 5:9, Ps. 34:19, Phil. 3:10...I could go on, but those are sufficient to prove my point. It is very important that we remember this truth at all times, so that we will not be surprised when suffering comes. It doesn't mean God doesn't love us; it doesn't mean His grace has been taken from you - it's normal. As it is written, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you." It is normal Christian experience!

To be a Christian is to face Satan

In the verse previous to the one I'm going to shortly look at, we learn that "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." The Christian lives in active battle with the evil spiritual forces of this world (Eph. 6:10-18). We are called to be fighting daily and firmly, so as not to fall back into captivity; the captivity in which all humanity currently lies, outside of Christ (2 Tim. 2:25). As such, we ought to expect to face his schemes, temptations, stumbling block and traps - and we ought to hide in Christ, in whom we have the victory.

To be a Christian is to not be alone

We need to remember that not only is God with us, but God has saved a people, not a person. Ever since the Reformation, we in the west have classically thought more about the individual aspects of salvation than the communal. This is okay by the way. The individual aspects of salvation must always precede the communal in our understanding, but once we are saved, we are part of a body, and we cannot claim to not need each other (1 Cor. 12:21).

This is especially important in our sufferings. When we face trials and tribulations, we are not made by God to bare them alone. Each Christian is called, I believe, to develop in the context of the local church friendships and comradeships in the fight against the flesh, the world and the devil. Christians are made to have unity and trust between each other, and to seek each others good above their own (Phil. 2:4). We are made to need each other. (1 Cor. 12:21 again).

I want to use as an example the relationship of Jonathan and David. Now some have very blasphemously said in the past that Jonathan and David were homosexuals. This is evil, and it is a twisting of the scriptures to their own ends, to justify their sinfulness. However, we must not minimize the emotional connection and mutual dependence upon each other that Jonathan and David shared. I want you to follow me to one scripture, where the care for David that Jonathan possessed is expressed in a God-centred, relationally realistic way. Come to 1 Sam. 23:16-18

"And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, "Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this." And the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home."

Now, I think there are a number of very important lessons for us to draw in strengthening and encouraging other Christians from this passage. I will go for my customary 'list' style.

> Effort

Jonathan went to Horesh to see David. Jonathan was currently in Gibeah, which according to most scholars is 22 miles away from Horesh. One rather strange commentator thought it was 834 miles away! The distance is not the point, it's what the distance means. Whichever number of miles it is, in those days before cars and trains and planes, to travel a distance greater than 3 or 4 miles was a considerable effort, taking many hours and even days. For Jonathan to travel that far and put in such effort just to see David and encourage him, doubtless communicated Jonathan's care and spiritual concern for his brother in the Lord.

> Intent

Jonathan didn't go for merely friendships' sake, or even for selfish reasons; he went with intent. He went to strengthen David's hand in God. He went to be a spiritual comfort and encouragement, and he didn't go by accident. The entire purpose of the effort of his journey and travel was to strengthen and encourage David. He was purposeful and precise; he was on the mission of comradeship in the Promise of God.

> Method

Jonathan's encouragement to David is specifically God-centred. Though doubtless simply seeing his friend would've been an encouragement to David in this time of constant war and displacement, Jonathan has more to give than simply his presence. He comes and he says to David, ""Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this." This is not, as it might read if you knew nothing else of the situation than what the verses I gave you say, simply wishful positive thinking - Jonathan is reminding David of the Promise of the Eternal God. God has promised David, as Jonathan doubtless knew given their friendship, that he would be King over Israel (1 Sam. 16:12-13). And so, Jonathan's encouragement is to point his brother to the decree and promise of God, who cannot lie.

> Camaraderie (For Jason, that's Ka-Ma-Rar-Da-Ree) :P

Jonathan and David make a covenant before the Lord. A covenant is an agreement between two parties to be responsible and accountable to one another. David and Jonathan are sealing their friendship in a continual and unconditional way, before God. I don't doubt this covenant, being before the Lord, included extended prayer together, to commit before God to pray for one another, encourage one another, and look out for one another in future days.

There is much we can learn about being alongside one another from their example. Christians ought to develop amongst one another a true sense of oneness and unity in the fight of faith; we are not alone, and we are not supposed to be. Do not listen to the lie that no-one can understand you, and no-one can help you; God has designed and purposed things another way, and those people are doubtless already in your life. Avail yourselves of the gift of one another! Walk in unity, peace and harmony; the reason Paul wants us to have those things are not because he's a pink, fluffy ecumenist; but because he knows full well that without such mutual support and dependence, we all fail to be the warriors of Christ we are called to be. He had experienced this himself (1 Cor. 16:17-18, Acts 16:25, 2 Tim. 4:10-21).

So in conclusion?

Be one in Christ; and fight together.

Your servant for His sake,

Arron

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