Genesis 2:18; Ecclesiastes 4:9
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.
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.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Learn here, solitude is not suited for man―though man was possessed of all the bliss of Paradise, one thing was still wanting to his felicity. He was alone; nor amidst the various orders of creatures could find any like unto himself. Angels were rational spirits, but incorporeal; beasts corporeal, but irrational. In his state of innocence society was needful.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Though there was an upper world of angels and a lower world of brutes, and he between them, yet there being none of the same nature and rank of beings with himself, none that he could converse familiarly with.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): As it holds true in things natural and civil, so in things spiritual and religious; man is a sociable creature, was made to be so; and it was the judgment of God, which is according to truth, and who can never err, that it was not good for man to be alone.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is neither for his profit, nor his comfort.
MATTHEW HENRY: It is not for his comfort―It is a pleasure to him to exchange knowledge and affection with those of his own kind, to inform and to be informed, to love and to be beloved. What God here says of the first man, Solomon says of all men that “two are better than one, and woe to him that is alone.” If there were but one man in the world, what a melancholy man must he needs be! Perfect solitude would turn a paradise into a desert, and a palace into a dungeon.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): But although God pronounced, concerning Adam, that it would not be profitable for him to be alone, yet I do not restrict the declaration to his person alone, but rather regard it as a common law of man’s vocation, so that every one ought to receive it as said to himself, that solitude is not good, excepting only him whom God exempts as by a special privilege.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): If in a state of innocence “it was not good for a man to be alone,” much more in a world of care and trouble “two are better than one” for mutual support, helpfulness, and sympathy.
JOHN CALVIN: In our best state in this world we have need of one another’s help; for we are members one of another, and “the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee,” 1 Corinthians 12:21.
MATTHEW HENRY: Those therefore are foolish who are selfish and would be placed alone in the earth…Hence Solomon infers the mischief of solitude: “Woe to him that is alone.” He lies exposed to many temptations which good company and friendship would prevent and help him to guard against; he wants that advantage which a man has by the countenance of his friend, as iron has of being sharpened by iron.―Virtuous and gracious affections are excited by good society, and Christians warm one another by provoking one another to love and to good works.
WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): Interchange of affection and interest is good for Man. No wonder that solitude is in general a most severe punishment short of death.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Solitude is of itself a certain cross, and especially so in such great torments, in which it is most grievous to be immersed without an example and without a companion.
JOHN MILTON (1608-1674): Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named not good.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Lonely sorrow falls to the lot of not a few.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): We hear a great deal about the solitude in which men of genius live, and how all great souls are necessarily lonely. That is true, and that solitude of great men is one of the compensations which run through all life, and make the lot of the many little, more enviable than that of the few great. ‘The little hills rejoice together on every side,’ but far above their smiling companionships, the Alpine peak lifts itself into the cold air, and though it be ‘visited all night by troops of stars,’ it is lonely amid the silence and the snow.
C. H. SPURGEON: There are perils in company, but there are perils, likewise, in our loneliness…Guard yourselves in solitude, lest selfishness and pride creep in.
MARTIN LUTHER: I have my worst temptations when I am by myself.
C. H. SPURGEON: When we mix with the world, we know that we shall be tempted. In our business in the banking-house, on the farm, on the vessel, in the street, we expect that in the world we shall have temptation. But if you could get out of the world, you would still be tempted! Jesus Christ went right away from human society into the wilderness and, “then” was He tempted by the devil. Solitude is no preservative against temptation from Satan!
MARTIN LUTHER: Whosoever is in honest company is ashamed to sin, or at least has no opportunity for it―more and greater sins are committed when people are alone than when they are in society. When Eve, in paradise, walked by herself, the devil deceived her. In solitary places are committed murders, robberies, adulteries, etc.; for in solitude the devil has place and occasion to mislead people.
C. H. SPURGEON: I am afraid that, sometimes, solitude is a help to temptations.
MATTHEW HENRY: Solitude has its temptations as well as company, and particularly to uncleanness.
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The remainder of corrupt nature often renders solitude as dangerous, as the world itself can be.
MARTIN LUTHER: I myself have found that I never fell into more sin than when I was alone.
C. H. SPURGEON: Beware of falling into solitary sin. Certain young men and women, when alone, pull out a wicked novel which they would not like to be seen reading. Others will have their sly nips though they would be reputed very temperate. If a man is right with God, he is in his best company when alone, and he seeks therein to honour his God and not to grieve Him. Surely, when I am alone with God, I am bound to use my best manners. Do nothing which you would be afraid to have known. Be in the fear of the Lord when you are so much alone that you have no fear of men.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): O, what can be hidden from the all-seeing eye of God? “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance,” Psalm 90:8. Those committed in darkness and privacy are easily discovered.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): A Christian is never out of the view of God’s eye.
C. H. SPURGEON: You are alone—maintain the fear of the Lord in your solitude.
