Our text for today is Romans 14:7
“None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.”
Among other things, this verse teaches that we must not think only of ourselves in whatever action we take. We do not live or do anything, just for ourselves alone.
Ask the man on the street about Jonah and he will tell you about a man who was swallowed by a whale. Bible students will tell you that it was not a whale, but a great fish. There is a more important lesson to learn from the first chapter.
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach (1:2). Verse 3 tells us Jonah’s response, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord.”
As our story continues, Jonah goes to the sea and gets on a ship headed away from where God told Jonah to go.
Believers know that you cannot run from God. Jonah was going to try anyway. No one knows how far they were out into the sea when God sent a storm. The ship was tossed and the sailors thought they were going to sink in the raging water. They cried to their gods and threw their cargo overboard to lighten their load. Nothing helped. They were caught in a storm. There was, however, one on board who was not afraid. Verse 5 tells us, “But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.”
In the first five verses of this great book, we see a great truth. We all get caught in storms and it is not always our fault. These sailors were innocent. The one who was responsible for the storm was sleeping.
Though it is not often observed in this story, herein is a great truth. That storm that Jonah caused was inflicting pain on those around him.
In life, I have caused a few storms. We all have. It is the human experience. Those storms were never suffered by me alone. The pain was also felt by those in the boat with me.
Never say, “It is my life.” There are others in your boat. We must think of them. As our verse said, “None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.”
Lonnie Davis