The Christian and Church Attendance
Many wonder: Must a Christian attend church? Does it matter if he decided to stay home and worship? The Bible says that it does matter. Paul wrote, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 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” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The mature Christian should never forget that some of his fellow believers, may be passing through doubt and discouragement. Therefore, it is his duty to give them encouragement (Isaiah 50:4). For he who converts a “sinner from the error of his way,” is saving his “soul from death,” and of hiding “a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
Church is a place where Christian members love (1 John 4:12), encourage (Hebrews 3:13), motivate (Hebrews 10:24), serve (Galatians 5:13), teach (Romans 15:14), and fellowship with one another (Ephesians 4:32). You can’t have a body without the members. Likewise, the church body has to have all of its “body parts” or Christian members for it to grow spiritually and prosper.
About the importance of the members to be a part of the church body, Paul wrote, “For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:14-20).
Christians are to be worship God in His church (Psalm 100:2). They are to yield to the will of Christ in all things, even as all the different parts of the body are led by the will of the head; and as all members of the body have a living connection with the head and with one another, so the members of the church will give to each other the relationship of members of the same body, all subject to the same head, Christ.
Jesus, just before His crucifixion, prayed for the unity of the members in the church. He said, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:11). And before God poured the Holy Spirit on the early church, the disciples were united in prayer and worship. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). Therefore, it’s the will of the Father that every Christian member should be Joined to His faithful church.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
