The Gathering
What would you say if I told you never to get together with your blood relatives, especially your immediate family members, again, because gatherings don’t matter?
I would be willing to bet that you would think I was crazy and ridiculous, and you would disregard my point of view. You would be right to disregard me, too.
But think about it, isn’t this what many who say they are Christians are doing today? It is becoming popular for people to say that gathering doesn’t matter, only believing in Jesus matters.
Here’s another question. Have you ever met a child born into a family who believed they chose their family? Or would it be more accurate that they were part of that family based on the decision of the parents to have them?
1Corinthians 12:18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
It might help if we take a moment to think who this was written to. It was not a letter to an individual. It was written to a gathering of believers in Corinth referred to as the church at Corinth. The Apostles did not travel to minister to individuals or establish one person in Christ, and call that a church. The fivefold ministries were given by Jesus for the equipping of the saints, plural, so that the church would be able to grow and the body of Christ would be edified.
Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
How can a believer engage in the one another commands if they are never a committed part of a community of believers? How do you love all the more a person you never see? How do you strive for unity with someone you are never around? How do you prefer another as better than yourself if you never see them or have contact with them?
The proof that gathering with other believers on the Lord's Day matters is revealed in how hard the enemy works to keep believers from being there.
He will try to send sickness or physical pains and sleeplessness on the weekend, emergencies late Saturday evening, or stir dissension in a home on a Sunday morning. If the gathering meant nothing at all and posed no threat to his agenda, he would leave people alone on weekends and allow them the convenience of an easy choice.
Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
The Lord can use the enemy's tactics against believers for an opportunity to equip if we will only rise in faith and stand against the enemy's schemes. Having done all to stand, stand therefore!
Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
The gift of fellowship is a wonderful privilege that is an integral part of the New Covenant Gospel. I hope and pray you are taking full advantage of all that it can offer your life today.
