Circles Are Greater Than Rows
May 7, 2023Pastor Patrick presented "Better Together" or "Circles are Better than Rows." A video of the message is here.
[Conversation Starters will begin again with the start of the next official life groups session this summer.]
I was totally intrigued by the "one another" passages. Hadn't ever thought of them as a group before. While there are plenty of them in the New Testament (just do a Google search), there aren't very many in the Old Testament that use exactly that phrase. But, there are some that get at that idea...
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Leviticus 19:15-18, Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD. Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
In the Leviticus words above, I am most impressed by the idea of God encouraging you to rebuke your neighbor when necessary. We are required to keep our fellow community members on the straight and narrow. And note the consequence if you don't: you'll share the guilt.
Here's another reference to helping fellow community members stay focused: Proverbs 27:17, As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
While "one another" is not a common Old Testament phrase, there certainly is no lack of promoting community. One Hebrew word used in such a way is qahal (קָהָל). It's often translated in the Greek as ekklesia which means "church" (and from which we get Ecclesiates). Given Patrick's message this morning, the connection between "community" and "church" is striking.
Torah-wise, community hits a benchmark when the Israelites are at Mt. Sinai. While clearly not a fully functioning, righteous community, they began the learning process to become community. In fact, in God's eyes, they are to become a holy nation. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel struggles to be a Godly community.
Another concept close to community in the Old Testament is shown in Psalm 133:1, "A Song of Ascents, of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" The key word here is unitedness, together, yachad (יַחַד). This word appears 141 times in the Old Testament, mostly as "together."
Click here for 66 references to loving one another (both Testaments).
And, here are considerably more "one another" verses.
Bonus
Lies are the root of most evil.
I know, most people say money is the root of all evil. They're wrong. The vast majority of great evil perpetrated against fellow humans has been the result of great lies.
About 100 million citizens, not soldiers, were killed by their own governments in the 20th Century based on lies.
Nazis, for example, sold the lie that Jews were somehow less than human and should be exterminated. Lots of smaller lies led to this, beginning with Hitler's lie that he would fix the German economy. About 6 million people were killed, not all Jews.
Chairman Mao, founding member of the CCP, was the winner in the 20th Century. His regime killed about 60 million of his own country's people. He was a master of propaganda that convinced the peasantry that he was one of them. Most of the dead were the result of a famine caused by his actions to move agriculture into industry. It didn't work. This was his "Great Leap Forward." That failure was followed by another "fix" that failed, the "Great Cultural Revolution," that killed most of the balance of his victims.
The bulk of the balance of the civilian deaths of the 20th Century were foisted upon the Soviet people starting with Lenin, then Stalin, and later leaders of their Communist regimes. The famine in Ukraine, the Holodomor (same root as holocaust) in the 1930s killed millions.
African slavery was made possible by selling the lie that blacks were inferior.
These are some biggies. But we all know what pain and suffering could be avoided in even the most mundane of personal and societal interactions if everyone would simply tell the truth.
As Prager points out, only so much evil can be done by individuals. To do so much evil to so many people, large numbers of otherwise decent people must believe lies.
Exodus 20:16 - Don't lie. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone followed this one of the Ten Commandments!
Given the sheer volume of information that we are bombarded with constantly and the even greater volume of information available through all manner of writings, how in the world are we to determine what's true and what's a lie? That may well be the 64,000 shekel question of the day. Here's one "lie detector" that Prager offers: Whoever is cancelling speech with which they disagree are the liars.
Check out the 5-minute videos on the Ten Commandments (from PragerU.com).