Getting on the Fast Track—Part 2

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 says, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

For today’s study, I want to focus on the “threefold cord.” In Getting on the Fast Track—Part 1, I mentioned there are three behaviors God expects of us as Christians. We’ll examine these three behaviors in detail in Getting on the Fast Track—Part 3, but for now, let it suffice to know that there are three behaviors or conducts that we are comparing to the threefold cord. Why a threefold cord?

The threefold cord is a symbol of strength. For example, a piece of twine is made up of many pieces of single strands. One thread alone can be easily broken with your bare hands (try it), but when you join that one piece of thread with many pieces of thread you have a strong piece of twine which is not easily broken.

Cut a piece of twine about 12” long and hold it in your hand. It’s limp and just kind of flops around there. Blow on it and it easily moves about. So is the Christian who practices only one of the behaviors we’ll be discussing in Part 3. When adversity blows into their life, they are very easily moved about and often fall away from the Rock of our Salvation.

Cut another piece of twine as you did with the first. Wrap the two pieces around each other. They sort of hold together…weakly! Now shake them around. See what happens? They separate quite easily and fall apart! So does the Christian who practices only two of the behaviors we’ll discuss in Part 3. When Satan shakes up their life because they want to get right with God, they won’t hold together for very long. They will soon fall apart spiritually and become full of guilt and doubt, losing their trust in our all sufficient Savior.

Now cut a third piece of twine as you did with the other two. Braid them together, just as a young woman braids her hair. Try to pull this threefold cord apart between your hands. It’s strong isn’t it? Try shaking it apart? It stays together doesn’t it? For a Christian to walk in the spirit and stay strong for Christ, they must habitually practice the threefold cord of Christian conduct.

In the spirit realm we are by ourselves not very strong, and if we have no prayer life, no fellowship with other believers, do not read the word or abide in Christ we can easily be broken. But, when we walk in fellowship by prayer and reading the word and worshipping together with other believers in a Bible believing, Bible teaching church, we have strength and we cannot be easily broken. When we live in the power of the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we are a strong cord that cannot be easily broken. In fact we are stronger, then the strongest piece of rope that can be found, anywhere!^[1]

Knowing who you are in Christ and confessing these truths daily, brings spiritual strength to your life. We can be secure knowing our position in the Lord, not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done for us.^[1]

While this is one threefold cord and an important one at that, it is not the same threefold cord that I’ve been referring to thus far. In our next lesson, Getting on the Fast Track—Part 3, we’ll examine the threefold cord of Christian conduct that Christ clearly expects of us in Matthew 6. If we put these behaviors into practice, not only will we grow stronger as Christians, but they will stretch us, test our faith, and allow us to grow closer to God than we ever thought possible.