Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them.(from Biblical Psychology, 189 L Oswald Chambers)
I had to admit to myself that this had become a bit too true of me. I, in my desire to protect myself from hurt, had become accustomed to isolation, and surely had become a bit of an oddity, and a peculiarism. God’s word is very clear on how holiness is developed. Oswald Chambers is being completely Biblical here. It is impossible to develop holiness alone. God speaks of it in 1 John 4:
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
If we love one another,
- God abides in us,
- His love is perfected in us.
- By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit.
I need you, dear Sister or brother in Christ, in order to grow in love. You need me, too. God’s love is perfected in us as we learn to love each other despite failings, faults, and screw-ups. Forgiveness should be a well-traveled road as a Believer in Jesus. It is the only road to Calvary we will ever take. Jesus calls us to the Garden of Gethsemane, as we learn to die to ourselves, but the Road to Calvary was His alone; and having walked it, He calls us to a new commandment: Love one another. As God abides in us, His love is perfected in us, we have the assurance that we are His and we sense the power and presence of His Spirit, all through loving one another. O, the powerful ways of God, so transforming, so freeing, so right.
