Two are better than one! In those five words from Ecclesiastes 4:9, we learn a great Biblical truth. Think about it: In Genesis 2:18, we read, for the very first time recorded in Scripture, that God said something wasn’t good. Of all the beautiful and majestic beings and worlds God created, He also declared how good it all was. But when Adam was created and he was without a suitable helper, God said it wasn’t good for him to be alone and he immediately fixed the situation with the creation of Adam’s helpmate, Eve. Eve was the living proof that two are better than one with God making that third fold in the cord which cannot be broken.
Two are better than one! In those five words, we are reminded that cooperation is a beautiful Biblical principle. Cooperation isn’t something Southern Baptists invented in 1925 with the birth of the Cooperative Program. The Bible is filled with admonitions to join together and be in fellowship with one another. The Bible commends, for example, the union of husband and wife in the covenant of marriage. In the New Testament, we read about the joy new believers had in Acts as the new believers joined together in worship and shared with one another as each had need. We read about the fellowship of the church and how they worked together because of their mutual relationship with Christ. In Romans 15 and Philippians 4, we read about the financial cooperation churches shared for the sake of the Gospel.
Two are better than one! In those five words, we are compelled to unite our efforts in carrying out the Great Commission. Because the Great Commission is so big (eternally, geographically and numerically), we must understand cooperation is necessary. We are approaching 100 years of a program which has helped facilitate an almost immeasurable reservoir of resources for sending, training, ministering, preaching, planting and evangelizing the lost. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women who have given sacrificially and cooperatively for all these years so that the Gospel might be shared and disciples made in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and indeed the uttermost parts of the world! We also own a great responsibility to continue keeping our hands to the proverbial plow. I pray for a revived sense of urgency to go and make disciples, and I pray for a renewed understanding that two ARE better than one, and a three-fold cord is not easily broken.
State Missionary Jay Stewart serves Alabama Baptists as director of the Office of Cooperative Program & Church Financial Resources. He may be reached at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 283, or 334-613-2283, [email protected].
