This devotional series examines a verse or two from a chapter of Proverbs each day of January 2017.
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. ~Proverbs 18:1
There are some times in life where we need to get alone. We need to spend time just between ourselves and God, in prayer or in reading his word. We have times where we need to think and ponder in a quiet place.
But if we live in the habit of isolation, then we neglect the great reality: We need others. We need a community of people around us.
When God first created mankind, he started with Adam as the only human. Parading the animals before him, none was found to be a suitable companion to the lone man. Against this reality, God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
Adam didn’t suffer from a lack of being around other creatures. He was, however, isolated as a human being.
When we think of Jesus saving us from our sins, we often couch it in terms of a personal relationships with Jesus. This certainly is an aspect of it. We will not be saved from our sins because of our parents’, grandparents’, friends’, or spouse’s relationship with God. We need to know Jesus ourselves. We each need to repent of our own sins and place our own faith in Christ as Savior.
But when Jesus saves us, he does not leave us isolated in that “personal relationship.” No, he saves us to be a part of a people (Titus 2:14)—his people.
The proverb above considers this from the angle of wisdom and sound judgment. When we isolate ourselves, we have no one else to ask and no one to challenge our thought process. We essentially, then, set ourselves up to be our own god. We see our own knowledge and understanding as absolute, and don’t see the need to grow from the input of others.
But this is a fool’s errand as a wise person realizes their need for wise counsel from others. So, let us be those who realize that we need others in our lives, and let us embrace the community that God intends us to be.
First Baptist Church 