Some claim to be followers of Christ but don't know what it really means to love the church. Some forsake the assembling together of the saints. Imagine a sea foaming and bubbling with gases and poisons. and on this sea is a boat containing people who have been saved from that deadly sea. How many would consider jumping back in? Not one!
The church is that boat. The world is that sea. And neglecting the assembling of the saints is one way that a Christian is going back into the world.
Neglecting the assembling of the saints may be a sign that one is...
...leaving God out of his life.
One may say, "I'm not leaving God out of my life." But is he really? The church - that assembly was important enough for Christ to die for it. When a person willfully fails to attend, what are they really saying that their actions?...creating a conscience that is seared.
Many times people are not even aware that this is happening, nor would they ever claim they are intentionally doing this. Does you conscience bother you when you miss the services of the church? Be thankful if it does, because you know that your conscience is alive and working in you....ruining his influence (Philippians 2:15,16; Matthew 5:14).
When those in the world see a Christian missing services to be other places, it tells them that the church must not mean that much to that Christian. How could one draw any other conclusion?...treating the Bible lightly (Hebrews 10:25).
When one misses the assembly, it only follows that God's word is not playing as serious a role in that Christian's life as it ought....underestimating the danger of the sin of omission.
Do we leave things undone that should be done? Faithful attendance ought to be one of the easiest things we would never leave undone. Yet some seem to slip up so easily in this area of obedience to the Lord....probably failing in other areas of the Christian life.
It's hard to imagine a Christian who prays fervently, studies his Bible regularly and tries to win others for Christ - and yet fails to attend the services of the church. Unfaithful attendance so often spins off into other areas of Christian service.
Philippians 2:15,16
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
