Reflections with Andy - Ecclesiastes 4:9–16 – Two Are Better Than One
For us to be truly faithful and grow in our faith we really need each other!
In this Friday reflection on Ecclesiastes 4:9–16, we see the Teacher’s familiar refrain of vanity gives way to a genuinely hopeful word: two are better than one, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. The reflection unpacks Wesley’s concept of social holiness — often misunderstood as primarily about social action, when Wesley actually meant something more intimate: the communal accountability of the class meeting, where people who deeply loved each other held each other to faithfulness not out of judgment but out of care. Holiness, for Wesley, was never a solo project. And one of the genuinely destructive forces of modern life — even as we’re more “connected” than ever — is the loss of that deep, honest, prayer-soaked Christian friendship. The practical challenge is direct: who are your people? Who prays for you? Who do you call when your world falls apart? Who loves you enough to tell you the truth? Find those people, stay close to them, and give them permission to speak into your life — because we cannot do this thing alone.
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Good morning, and happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a great week. We don’t have anything too big planned this weekend — tomorrow we have our Missions 5K here at Saint Matthew’s, and all the proceeds go toward our mission trip later this year in October. If you’re in the Jackson metro area and want to support a good cause, message me and I’ll get you the details. Sunday I’m preaching at Intersection, so that’ll be a good day too.
Today we’re picking up with the end of Ecclesiastes 4 — and like I said yesterday, some good news is coming. Let’s read verses 9 through 16:
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who will no longer take advice. For the youth came out of prison to reign, even though born poor in the kingdom. I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king; there was no end to all the people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.”
The end does wind back to vanity and chasing after wind — because that’s where Ecclesiastes always lands for now. But that opening section about friendship and community is the good news I promised, and it’s worth sitting with.
Two are better than one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
John Wesley wrote and preached about what he called social holiness, and I think we sometimes misunderstand what he meant by that. We tend to hear “social” and think social action — serving the poor, advocating for the marginalized. And Wesley absolutely believed in that; he was constantly intervening on behalf of the broken and the oppressed in his society, and he saw that as a requirement of anyone genuinely pursuing holiness. But when he used the phrase social holiness, he was actually talking about something else. He was talking about community.
Wesley understood that Christians cannot be transformed by grace in isolation. Holiness, for Wesley, wasn’t something you achieved alone in your prayer closet. It was something that happened together, in community — specifically in what he called class meetings. Small groups. And here’s what’s important: Wesley’s class meetings weren’t primarily knowledge-based. They weren’t Bible studies designed to increase your theological information. They were accountability groups. Communities of people who loved each other deeply and were willing to ask the hard questions: how is it with your soul? Where have you struggled this week? Where did you fall short?
And the accountability wasn’t coming from a place of judgment. It was coming from a place of deep, genuine love. These were people who wanted you to be faithful, who celebrated your victories and mourned your failures, and who helped you get back up when you fell. That’s what Wesley meant by social holiness — and his famous line was: there is no holiness but social holiness. You cannot become holy alone.
I think one of the genuinely destructive things about the way we live now — and yes, I understand the irony of saying this on social media — is that we’ve traded deep Christian community for the illusion of connection. We’re more “connected” than any generation in history, and I wonder if we’ve never been more genuinely isolated.
So here’s the question worth sitting with today: who are your people? Who in your life is praying for you right now? A good way to figure that out is to flip it around — who are you praying for? Who do you turn to when your world falls apart? Who gets the first text, the first phone call, when you need help or advice or someone to just sit with you in the grief? Who will celebrate with you in your victories and cry with you in your losses and love you enough to tell you the hard truth when you need to hear it?
If you don’t have that — find it. A small group, a Sunday school class, a choir, a service team, something. Because when we fall, we need someone to pick us up. And we are going to fall. We’re going to have moments of doubt and fear and failure and loss. We can’t do this thing alone.
Two are better than one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Wesley was right — there is no holiness apart from community. We need each other.
Have a great weekend! See you bright and early Monday morning.