Our small (Bible study) life group at a recent "reunion"
This blog: https://www.challies.com/articles/the-worst-consequence-of-skipping-church created a huge stir on Facebook, because this is a really painful topic for some people. The detractors accused the author of deconstructing his primary text and insisted that they can worship God just as well with only their family unit, or alone out in nature. They feel this way because they have been hurt by people they identified as Christians in the past. Is this a valid reason to give up meeting with other Christians? This was my reply (which may seem a little odd without the accusation, but here goes).
I am strongly opposed to deconstruction as a means of studying the Biblical text. Instead, I believe we should look for the meaning the author intended for the audience of the time, identify the underlying principle, and apply THAT to our lives today. The audience of the book of Hebrews was a group of persecuted Christians. Hebrews 10:32-34 discusses imprisonment and confiscation of property. Heb 11:35 suggests that while some were released, others were tortured and killed. Heb 13:3 discusses remembering those currently in prison and those who are ill-treated, “since you also are in the body.” (I’ll say more about the body later). Worshiping as a group increases the risk of persecution because believers are more likely to be identified as Christians and to be caught by authorities. However, just as Christians in China and the Middle East today risk persecution in order to meet together, the Hebrew Christians were warned, “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…” (Heb 10:25). The obvious question is, why meet together? Why risk it? Why not meet as individual families? After all, Jesus often went out into nature, alone, to pray.
The rest of Hebrews (in addition to addressing other issues) explains why we need to meet regularly. I suggest skimming the entire Hebrew letter as a unit to remind ourselves of the context before honing in on a few passages. When I quote passages, “…” indicates that parts less relevant to this discussion are omitted. This is a crazy long post already.
After 4½ chapters of explaining the supremacy of Christ, the perfect priest, Son of God, and, “source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:9), the Hebrew writer turns to the reader and says, “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”- Heb 5:11-14. OUCH! The Hebrew Christians are being indicted for being immature; they have not exercised their discernment muscles. What do they need to do to grow up? After a long sidebar reiterating Christ’s supremacy, which the writer identifies as milk (the basics), the conclusion is, “In speaking of the new convenant, he makes the first one obsolete. ...”- Heb 8:13.
The next verse (9:1) says, “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.” This is followed by a long passage about the first covenant and how Christ’s sacrifice did away with it by making the animal sacrifices obsolete, and then comes this glorious statement, in Hebrews 10: 17 – 18: “… “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Remember, we are talking here about worship and the fact that in the new covenant, everything has changed, because now offerings of animal sacrifices for sin are not needed.
IMMEDIATELY after all of this, we get to the passage at hand. Hebrews 10:19 – 31 says, (summarizing): “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean … Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately…there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins… Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God… It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Meeting together is closely linked with avoiding deliberate sin and falling away.
This is immediately followed by a discussion of their past stalwart unity in the face of persecution, and a plea to be strong again. “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised…. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” - Heb 10:35-39 The Christians to whom Hebrews was originally written needed to shore up their moral courage. We need moral courage too.
In the essay, the author states that Hebrews 10:24-25 warns against neglecting to meet together, NOT primarily because we put our own souls at risk, but rather, because when we do not meet together, we are less able to strengthen other Christians. The author of the essay echoes the Hebrew writer in 10:24-25, “… stir up one another to love and good works … encouraging one another….” with (from the essay) “Gathering with God’s people is not first about being blessed but about being a blessing. It’s not first about getting but about giving.” I Cor 14:26, in the context of love being the greatest thing a mature Christian (as opposed to a child in the faith) can donate to the group, tells us that when we meet together, “…Let all things be done for building up.” So, the essay is indeed expanding upon a principle taught in the text.
However, meeting together with other Christians is not ONLY about helping others. Clearly we benefit from the encounter as well. In addition to being encouraged, through spending time with a larger group of believers, we can identify our areas of weakness (or deliberate sin). Earlier, the Hebrew writer pleads, “But exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (3:13) Meeting together often (not necessarily just once a week) increases the chances that God will use someone in the group to say something that convicts us – so that we will recognize areas in which we need to change. That can be uncomfortable – painful, even – but it helps us grow.
We can also learn more about living as God wants us to live by meeting with other Christians. Although it is true that we, as New Testament Christians, have the Holy Spirit to guide us, and we are less dependent upon specially selected men to help us worship (the priests of the Old Testament), all humans can easily be deceived. One way to stay on the path is to compare our beliefs and actions to clear statements in the Bible. However, Rom 15:14 says that we also instruct one another. It is important for all believers, regardless of education or position in the church, to be humble enough to realize that we can gain new insights from other flawed humans.
The Prophets in the Old Testament were sometimes very isolated, but this was never praised – it was always seen as a disadvantage. Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah suffered depression and risked burn-out when they were alone. Things went much better for Elisha, whose friend, the Shunammite woman, built him a room. (2 Kings 4) And although the word of the Lord sometimes came to prophets when they were alone, in every case God intended for them to share it with others. They preached and proclaimed what God revealed to them.
The New Testament takes the importance of togetherness to an entirely new level, because we are, corporately, Christ’s body. Many passages, including Romans 12:5,1 Cor 12:12-31, Ephes 3:6 & 5:23, and Col 1:18 & 24, discuss this powerful metaphor of unity, which incorporates (among other things) synergy (Eccl. 4:7-12), interdependence (Gal 6:2, I Thes 5:11), giftedness (Rom. 12:3-8), and incarnational ministry (Eph 4:11-16, Rom 12:9-13, I Pet 4:10, John 13:12-14). When we do good deeds individually, we are praised, but when we do good as a group of Christians, God receives the glory.
The Greek word for “one another” (άλλήλων) is used in the New Testament 94 times. Here is a web page dedicated just to those verses that is very much worth studying: http://overviewbible.com/one-another-infographic/ The bottom line is that we are supposed to be a family of believers who care for one another as Christ cares for us. If you are DEVOTED to Christ, you will be DEVOTED to strengthening his (and your) brothers. Acts 2:42-47 describes the early church before it was corrupted by divisions, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… they sold … to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet… with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Our Leander family of believers tries to come together with this same spirit. Join us!
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35, ESV
Worshiping with other Christians is difficult because the church is made up of people, and people are flawed. It is very appealing to find excuses to just stay home, or to go somewhere else on Sunday mornings. As we attempt to justify this decision, we need to be careful of deconstructionism ourselves! It is so easy to think of a principle we “know” to be true and then back it up with a memorable scripture taken completely out of context. The context of the passage (Matt 18:20), “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” is not the church meeting together for worship, but rather, forgiveness of brothers in Christ.
The verses before this one (Matt 18:15-19) discuss how to deal with a brother who sins against you, and the importance of working gently to restore that person. If you go to your brother and he listens to you and repents and you forgive him, God is in the midst of your little gathering. This is immediately followed by Peter challenging the idea that we need to be so willing to forgive those who wrong us, asking, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” You can read the rest of that story for yourself. I do believe that God is with even a small gathering of worshippers, but there do not even need to be two together – God is with us if we have to worship alone in solitary confinement, because God’s Spirit lives in all of us who have been baptized into Christ’s death. However, Matt 18:20 is not talking about worship, and every scripture in the New Testament that does talk about worship encourages us to meet with the other Christians in our area in unity and love.
TL;DR
There are times Christians are isolated for various reasons. Clearly God is still with us during those times. However, it is also clear that God intends for His people (His body) to be connected and interdependent; that is how we best support one another and represent Him as we live among the world.