When I was a young child, there were a few Sunday mornings when my brothers and I made the mistake of asking the question, “Do we have to go to church today?” Without exception, my dad would reply swiftly with, “No, we don’t have to…we GET to!” Thankfully, rather than severe punishment, this response usually resulted in us having a little laugh with our father and proceeding to get ready.
Perhaps your parents had a similar response to this immature complaint. With a simple moment of humor, our parents gently made it clear to us that church was not an option, but a privilege. But, as we get older, do we continue to treat worship that way?
Sometimes we start to see worshipping together as just “a good thing to do” rather than something vital to our lives as Christians. We cannot be ignorant about this. The regular assembling of the saints is commanded by God. As we surely know, Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” This means that choosing to neglect worship is equivalent to abandoning our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Worshipping together is a vital part of church fellowship. As Hebrews said, we stir each other up to love and good works. Colossians 3:16 says we teach and admonish each other. 1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us, that when we worship together, we build each other up. Worship is incredibly beneficial, but it may be even more important than we realize.
In 1 John 1:7, the apostle writes, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here we have a conditional statement. If we walk in the light, what happens? We, then, have fellowship with one another and are cleansed of sin.
So, what if we do not have fellowship with one another? What if we are perfectly fine with meeting with the saints once a week, a month or a year? Understand the consequences of this verse. If we forsake the fellowship of the saints, we cannot be walking in the light and cannot be cleansed of sin.
To walk as Christ walks is to long for time with brethren. Jesus loved spending time with His disciples. The very reason He gave His life was so He might be joined with them in heaven, promising, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
Going to church is not just a good idea. It is the evidence of our salvation. You can’t go to heaven if you don’t go to worship because you can’t walk in the light alone.