A podcast listener named Joe in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, on Facebook you once wrote this, 'Christ did not die to create saved loners. He died to create Christ-exalting friendships.'" Can you please explain this? A lot of Christians are loners. Many of them are hurting, perhaps victims of the church or perhaps are victims of the lies that they believe.

How would you encourage or motivate Christian loners? There are a lot of Christian loners, some by choice and some not by choice. And my point was God's aim in the death and resurrection and work of Christ today is to move people beyond that stage. If they're in it, if you're in a stage where you are a Christian loner because you want to be or you're a Christian loner because you feel like people have given you no choice but to be, God sent his Son to change that.

He wants to move you not just to be a soul-satisfied friend of Jesus, but to be a soul-satisfied friend to friends so that you experience Jesus through others as well as directly. And here's where that came from, Tony. I preached a few months ago from 2 Timothy 4 where Paul said, "At my first defense, no one stood by me.

Everybody deserted me, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me." Now you could take that verse and say, "See? He didn't need people. Jesus was his friend. Jesus will never fail. People will always fail you. I'm tired of dealing with people. They're just fickle and they let you down, and I'm going to be like Paul and have the Lord stand by me, and if everybody forsakes me, that's their problem.

I've got Jesus." That is totally not what Paul experienced in that chapter because he said just a little bit later to Timothy, "Do your best to come to me before winter." And he said a little earlier, "Luke alone is with me. Get Mark. Bring him with you. He is useful to me in the ministry." This is Paul's heart in all of his letters.

Paul hated being in ministry alone. When he was forced to go alone to Athens, the first thing he did was send back, "Please get Timothy and the team down here as soon as you can. I don't want to be here in this city by myself." And so I think it stands that Christ died so that we would not be Christian loners but would be in Christ-exalting friendships because, if you say, "Why?" It's because there's more of Christ to be known in Christ-exalting friendships.

You know, I don't want to twist the arm of a loner and say, "You ought to do this, and it's your duty to do this." I want to say, "You're missing something, really missing something. There is more of Christ to be known. There's more of God to be known.

God said to a happy man, 'It is not good for you to be alone.' And Paul said to a church, 'The eye can't say to the hand, "I have no need of you." The head can't say to the feet, "I have no need of you."'" They can't. And if you're a head or an eye or a hand or a finger or a pinky or a big toe standing off by yourself saying, "I don't need them," you're wrong.

Paul says you're wrong. So here's my encouragement. First of all, to the loners who think they don't need others, I would say, "You're kicking against the pricks. God has more for you, much more of himself than you will have on your own." And the thing I'd say by way of encouragement to the Christian loner who feels that he or she has no choice, that they've been kicked into loneliness, I would say, "I'm sorry for what has happened to you.

I'm sorry that that's been done to you." And I would say, "Please, don't give up on the one never-failing friend because other friends have failed you." And I would say, "For the sake of Christ, forgive those who have failed you." Unforgiveness is suicidal. It hurts you more than it hurts them.

And I would say, "Move toward a Bible-preaching church with the prayer that God will guide you. He has a community for you. Trust him for this." And I would say, finally, "Be for others what you long for them to be for you." Yes. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast.

We will be back next week with all new episodes. Until then, please continue to email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. And of course, you can visit us online at any time at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening. 1 Desiring God's Preciousness 2 Desiring God's Perfection 3 Desiring God's Perfection 4 Desiring God's Perfection 5 Desiring God's Perfection 6 Desiring God's Perfection 7 Desiring God's Perfection 8