To Whom It May Concern

Posted under Church, Family, Spiritual Growth by jack

I’ve been coming across the importance of community lately in my scripture reading and discussions in class and with friends. And I cannot get over how central the church is to each Christian. You see, I feel like it is a current trend to think that “I don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian.” That is such a legalistic attitude. What? Yes, a legalistic attitude. And it’s funny because the people who say, “I don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian” are saying that because they think going to church every Sunday is legalistic, when really they are missing the picture completely. Going to church is not a matter of legalism, it is a matter of the heart. The bible makes it clear that Christians desire to be with other Christians. It is one of the main functions of Christians. God called us to be one in Christ. You can’t be one in Christ if you never express a desire to be with other believers. There are plenty of passages in the bible that show us the importance of being in the community of faith. It would take forever to comment on each one so I’m just going to list some passages I’ve been reading lately that stress the importance of being apart of the Body and meeting together, and assume that if this post concerns you, you will read them. Hebrews 10:24-25 “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some”, 1 Corinthians 14:26 “when you come together”, Paul assumes that the Christians at Corinth come together regularly, Ephesians 2:11-22 especially in 16 he says “and might reconcile us both to God in one body though the cross” both meaning Jew and Gentile, what this passage means is that we must reconcile with other believers, so we can become one body, in order to be reconciled to God. Still some of the strongest support for being apart of the church is found in 1 John 4:20-21 “if anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” How can we love our brothers and sisters without meeting together to worship our Lord regularly. Loving non-believers is great and necessary, but it cannot come at the cost of loving our fellow Christians. It is clear that our priority as Christians is to meet together with other Christians and worship God. If you are struggling with why you should go to church then you should read these passages as a start. I’m learning this myself, but it is a true sign of spiritual maturity to view church as somewhere you want to be rather than somewhere you have to be. It is a heart issue.