Psalm 111:1 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.”
Worship of God can happen anywhere. But we are not meant to worship God alone. The one who maintains that he is a believer and does not need to assemble with other believers, is: 1) deceiving himself regarding the saving nature of his faith, 2) deceiving himself regarding the health of his walk with God, 3) woefully ignorant of his own weaknesses and need for other believers, 4) ignorant of the Scriptures and their emphasis on the corporateness of worship, to name but a few.
We are meant to worship and serve our great God – together. We are saved into a body of believers. The New Testament knows nothing of believers who are not an active part of a community of believers. We do not really know the incredible damage done by the individualism that marks our culture.
In believers individualism has led to spiritual ruin because of a lack of accountability; it has led to aberrant theology because of the refusal or ignorance of being taught by the God appointed leaders of a church; it has led to depression, loneliness; it denies the death of Christ for the church and not just individuals. The list could go on.
The way we do church is rapidly changing these days. Some of that is needed and good, some may not be. But what cannot be changed is the fact that no Christian believer has real faith who refuses to be part of a fellowship of people who together practise the four chief marks of a church – commitment to studying and obeying the Scriptures, commitment to one another, commitment to observance of the Lord’s Supper and commitment to prayer.
Today, consider such texts of Scripture as Ephesians 2 and 3, I Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 and see there what God says about the church. Be thankful that He has brought us into a great community of faith that will one day sing the praises of our great God unhindered by sin.
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