Christians who love going to church but there are also many Christians who don’t. It has become increasingly popular for Christians to stay at home and find alternative methods to practice their faith including prayer, meditation and personal Bible study. Many people who don’t attend church regularly or at all wonder what the point of going to church is if they have a personal relationship with God. While not attending church will not send you to hell or make God love you any less, it is not what God hoped for His people and can hinder spiritual growth.
First, to understand why God cares if we go to church, it’s important to understand the definition of church. Church is commonly understood to be a building used for public Christian worship but the biblical definition characterizes the church as people. We see the word church used in the Bible multiple ways. First, it is described as the body of Christ. The church is often defined as a local assembly or group of believers. Paul, who was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, says in his greeting “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2). This is just one example of the church being defined as company or assembly. Next, the church is defined as the body of living, individual believers. When Paul preaches the Gospel after receiving it by revelation from Jesus Christ, he says, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it” (Galatians 1:13). Paul also said “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Both of these verses signal that the church is a body of living people. Finally, it is defined as the universal group of all people who have trusted Christ through the ages. When Peter makes his confession of Christ, Jesus replies, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18). From these examples, we see that church is not something we do individually. It is something we do collectively. A very important aspect of Christian life is not just what you do by yourself but also what you do together with other people. Biblically, the church is considered to be the “family of God”. We understand family to be a group that is mutually dependent on each other. The same goes for the church. If we don’t attend church, we are negating what God intends for His people: community.
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Author Oni T.
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