We need to Keep Meeting Together.
The writer of Hebrews says,
let us… not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing… (v. 24-25)
The Greek word here for “meeting” is the word episynagoge. This is the word from which we get synagogue. It means congregation or assembly.
Now we need to make a distinction. A congregation is different from an aggregation. An aggregation is a collection of people who happen to be at the same place at the same time but who otherwise have no other connection to each other. An aggregation is merely the sum total of its parts.
But a congregation is different. A congregation is a gathering of people whose lives touch and intersect. A congregation is always more than the sum of its parts. There’s synergy, life and power.
So here’s a question. Are we called to be an aggregation or a congregation? We’re called to be a congregation. We’re not called to be a group that just happens to watch the same service online. We’re not called to be a group that merely associates ourselves with Cornerstone Church.
We’re called to live in community with each other. Doing life together. Being in relationship with each other.
That’s why the image the Bible often uses is the body. You and I make up different parts of this body. We all play an important role. We all need each other to be healthy.
That’s why watching the services is a good thing, but it’s not enough. That’s why reading the Bible and praying on your own are good things, but they’re not enough. All these things are important practices. But when you do them on your own, you’re not growing the way God has designed it.
Because biblical community is the primary context for life transformation. It’s when you gather around other embers and feed off each other that the fire gets hot.
If you’re a Christian and most of your faith is private, if you have no connections to other Christians, then you don’t truly understand the Christian faith.
John Wesley says that the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.
