Two people are better than one
[Ecclesiastes 4:7-12]
As I was reading a sermon ‘The principle of ministry together’ in the book of Nehemiah, written by Pastor Dong-won Lee, he talked about how Lee Iacocca, who rebuilded the broken American automaker Chrysler, mentioned about the famous 3-P’s when a newspaper reporter asked him about the secret of his business. The 3-P’s principles are (1) Principle, (2) Practice and (3) Persistence (Internet). In a word, the principle is saying that we have to set the principles and put them into practice consistently and intensively. In doing so, Pastor Lee talked about the Principle-centered Leadership, which has recently been presented as an ideal of healthy leadership. He said that the leader Nehemiah in the Bible had already reconstructed the city of Jerusalem and was able to accomplish a great project by exercising his leadership based on this principle. And he summarized in three ways, asking what the principles of leadership he focused on were. The first principle among them is "Principle of cooperation". Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem with more than 75 people in Nehemiah 3, more than 75 of them co-operating side by side at the same time, keeping his position and achieving the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem. In contrast, the first point of disqualification in the leadership of our Koreans is pointed out as the spirit of this cooperation. These individualistic, non-collaborative people are likened to "crabs in a jar". Every single crab in the jar has enough power to crawl out of the car but cannot. The reason is that if one crab tries to get out, another crab hangs on the hind legs. The crab's way of survival is, in a word, “you die and I die”. These extreme egoism, is not it the church today?
This is what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:7 – “Again I saw something meaningless under the sun.” What is that vain thing? Look at verse 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!” This statement indicates that extreme individualism is vain in order to fill only its own covetousness (Park Yun-sun). King Solomon saw under the sun that people were envious of each other, doing all the hard work and doing various tricky things (v. 4). Such a time eventually provokes the covetousness of the envy of a person, and the more envious the person becomes an extreme individualist in order to fill his covetousness. So he said that this extreme individualist is "alone, without a son, no brother" (v. 8). This means that the extreme individualist does not even take care of his or her son and brother (Park Yun-sun). Ultimately, the extreme individualist does endure all the trouble in this world in order to gain wealth only for himself, but later he confesses: ‘For whom am I toiling, and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is meaningless-- a miserable business!’ (v.8) In a word, extreme personalistic life is vain and useless. All labor is vain and useless. King Solomon saw from the extreme individualists that when they looked at back later in their lives all the hard works they did without experiencing joy they realized “I lived in vain”.
Do we really see, like King Solomon, the vain and useless labor of the extreme individualists in this world? Have you ever seen the pity souls who worked so hard without taking care of their children and brothers/sisters and accumulated wealth but could not enjoy their lives? Although they think and say that they have worked so hard for their families, their families don’t think so because they didn’t even take care of their families and thus their relationship is severed. So the extreme individualists are asking themselves, in extreme loneliness, “For whom did I work so hard?” Have you ever seen people around you who threw this kind of questions? Have you ever seen someone who worked so hard all his or her life, accumulate so much wealth but died without fully enjoying it? Moreover, have you ever seen someone die lonely because his or her relationship with his or her children and siblings are not good? “This too is meaningless – a miserable business!” (v.8)
King Solomon saw something that is not in vain but profitable (vv. 9-12). What is that profitable thing? That profitable thing is two are better than one. Look at verse 9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.” Why is two better than one? It is because they have a good return for their work (v. 9). Here “Two are better than one” doesn’t mean numbers but it means when we cooperate with each other, it is beneficial (Park Yun-sun). Then what is really beneficial? King Solomon talked about three:
First, two are better one because if one falls down, another person can help him up.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:10 – “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” Who can raise you up when you are alone? But when two people walk together and one falls, another person can hold him up and raise him. Likewise, King Solomon says that the reason why two people are better than one person here is because they can hold each other and raise each other. In other words, two people can help each other when when it is hard. How about you? Do you have a person who can help you when you are are going through really hard time? The church must be a community that helps each other when it is difficult. It is a true church that is a community that holds, supports, and helps each other when we fall.
Second, two are better one because we can comfort each other.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:11 – “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” King Solomon saw those who were abused in this world and saw their tears, but saw that they had no comforter (v. 1). We need people who can help us when we are in trouble and difficulty, but we also desperately need comforting people who can comfort us. We need a comforter who can be with us when we are lonely and who can weep with us when we are weeping. In doing so, we can be comforted by feeling God’s warm love through the consolation. This must be the image of our church. It is a community that encourages each other, comforts one another and empowers each other. This is the true church.
Lastly, two are better than one because they are able to stand firm and overcome all adversity together.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:12 – “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Isn’t it interesting? King Solomon talks about one person in verse 8, two people in verse 9 through 11 and then three people (“three strands”) in verse 12. What does “three strands” mean? One line will be easily broken, two lines will be less easily broken, but if there are three lines, it means that it will never be easily broken (Wiersbe). Have you ever visited the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco? Do you know a bit about the cable that supports the Golden Gate Bridge? The cable is said to be made up of a number of wires that form a single thick cable. The thickness of the cable is 92.4cm, which is thicker than a few trees. To make one cable, 27,572 thin wires were combined and pencil-thick wires were moved together to form 61 rods, which were compressed and bundled together to form a 3-foot-tall rope. Finally, the cable was wrapped with thin wire and finished smoothly. It is said that the steel cable of 129,000 km is woven into a thick cable (Internet). Is not it amazing? Just as the Golden Gate Bridge cable never breaks easily, when three people come together in one heart, they stand firmly and can overcome all kinds of difficulties together. They can help each other, comfort each other, protect each other, and overcome all adversity. Don’t you want this fellowship of love in the Lord? Don’t you want to dream of this community?
This age in which we live is increasingly marked by the extreme individualism tendencies in which people love themselves (2 Tim. 3: 2). Where these individualistic tendencies can be seen, they can be seen from those who labored to fill only their own covetousness (Ecc 4: 8). When we look at those people who have been working hard for a lifetime and have accumulated a certain amount of wealth, but have not been satisfied and have continued to build up wealth but eventually have lost their relationship with their family members and are left alone with no one around them, I can not help but throw this question: “Who do you work for?” When we see people who worked so hard and suffered in their life time but never enjoyed his life and die in their loneliness, we cannot help but confess as King Solomon did, ‘This is meaningless and useless.’ Along with this extreme selfishness, I think that what we can see in the world these days is 'selfish familialism.' In other words, people are increasingly aware of their own families. They are not interested in other families. I think this phenomenon is an extreme reverse reaction especially in this era when the family is collapsing. In other words, in this era when the family is collapsing, selfish familialism, which people only care about their own family, is prominent. So we who believe in Jesus also tend to pray and live faithfully in the church for our own families alone. Is this a right life of faith? King Solomon is teaching us the right principle of living in a faith community, which is ‘two are better than one.’ In other words, the principle of good faith community life is cooperation. And this principle of cooperation is beneficial. The reason is not only that we can help each other when we are in difficulties but also we can stand up together firmly and overcome all the adversities together. I hope and pray that our faith community will be faithful to the principle of cooperation so that we can help each other, comfort each other and overcome any kinds of difficulties together.