
Life can be much better and we can experience so much personal joy when our focus is not on ourselves but on others. In this section, Solomon is NOT saying if you focus on others then you will be a more spiritual person; or more godly. We believe that this is all true but it isn’t the point Solomon is making. Solomon is letting us know that when we turn our focus off of “me” and onto “we” we will be happier.
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” —Mark 12:29-31
Solomon breaks up this chapter in two sections.
- You can either hate your neighbor and destroy yourself (4:1-6)
- You can love your neighbor and so love yourself (4:7-16)
1 Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, But they have no comforter— On the side of their oppressors there is power, But they have no comforter.
2 Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead, More than the living who are still alive.
3 Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, Who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
4 Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
5 The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh.
6 Better a handful with quietness Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.
7 Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun:
8 There is one alone, without companion: He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, Nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, “For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?” This also is vanity and a grave misfortune.
9 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
13 Better a poor and wise youth Than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more.
14 For he comes out of prison to be king, Although he was born poor in his kingdom.
15 I saw all the living who walk under the sun; They were with the second youth who stands in his place.
16 There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king; Yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind. —Ecclesiastes 4:1-16
Mark 7:31-37 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Live the life you have now instead of longing for the life you think you will have but cannot actually control.
GK Chesterton, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”
“It is possible to know the price of everything but the value of nothing.” David Gibson, “Living Life Backward”, pg. 75