Today is the 18th November and so I began to read Proverbs 18 (31 chapters for 31 days in the month). As usual, I didn’t get very far. I didn’t get past verse 1! This is usually what happens wen I read God’s word each morning. I rarely get through a chapter. As I begin to read, I find something so wonderful and revelatory that I stop to study and meditate upon it more! God’s word is new and refreshing each day.
What was it that arrested my attention? Proverbs 18:1 BSB says: “He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment.” The Good News Translation says: “People who do not get along with others are interested only in themselves.”
This truth lines up with God’s word and His plan for the people He created. God did not create us for isolation. He created us for familyness, togetherness, and fellowship. He sets the solitary in families. Yes, He wants us to experience our family fellowship, but to also reach out beyond our families.
There are some folks who do not go to church. They can’t find one where they fit in and therefore fellowship on their own. That is isolation. God loves togetherness. Recently I did a study on the assembling of God’s people. Can you believe it? I found 17 different Hebrew words that God uses to describe His people assembling and coming together and each one is used in many different Scriptures! It is God’s heartbeat and it His plan.
God continues this doctrine in the New Testament. We all know Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves TOGETHER, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the ore as ye see the day approaching.” And we read in Acts 4:42 that this was the lifestyle of the early church.
It is true that we can miss “sound judgment” when we are isolated. We need one another to sharpen one another, to encourage and exhort one another, and to keep one another in line. It’s not even enough to go to church. We must fellowship. We just show hospitality to one another.
God’s plan is togetherness, not isolation.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell