Hebrews 10:23-25
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And 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.
God never intended us to walk our Christian lives alone. We were always supposed to meet together with fellow believers, supporting and encouraging one another. When we are born-again, we are born into the family of God and we are all brothers and sisters together. It is not by accident that God uses the language of a family to describe us, it is all about relationship.
2 Corinthians 6:18
“I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”
If you are a regular reader of these articles, you may be wondering how this ties in with yesterday’s article about looking to God and not to men for our deliverance. This is the counter balance to that, we do indeed look to God for everything but we also have brothers and sisters who can encourage us when we are tired. Together we help one another to stay focused on God.
We call the family of believers on earth the church. The church is also called the body of Jesus. As we gather together as the church, we are able to learn from one another and build one another up. God gives every believer Spiritual gifts to be able to strengthen the church as a whole and make it effective in building strong, healthy members who are able to reach out to a lost and dying world.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
1 Corinthians 14:26
How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
There is no “lone wolf” anointing in the Bible. To be separated from fellow believers is to be an easy target for the devil. We need to overcome the things that separate us by dealing with one another in love (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-8). Where offence has occurred, we need to process this and forgive. Offence is one of the greatest tools of the devil to make Christians unfruitful and derail them from their calling and purpose.
1 John 4:20-21
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
Ephesians 4:31-32
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
The church is the group of believers who are Jesus’ body on the earth. Together as the church we are able to push back the kingdom of darkness and expand the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.
Don’t stop meeting together. Don’t let offence and apathy keep you from Christian fellowship.
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