Many Christians make excuses for not attending church services and having fellowship with other Christians at church. These excuses include claims that the people at church are too judgmental or they are hypocrites or they’re only interested in my money or I don’t get anything out of church or personal preferences such as I would rather go to church at home watching TV preachers, and many more. Sometimes a person doesn’t go to church because of something that happened between them and other members of the church or between them and church leadership.
Scripture clearly teaches that Christians should fellowship with other Christians and that they should worship together. When Christians come together, God has promised to be present with them, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt. 18:20). God wants his chosen ones to bear with one another with love and compassionate hearts, with kindness and patience dwelling in the word of Christ, “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:12-17).
Christian Fellowship provides a support system of love, encouragement, counseling, teaching, etc. that helps each Christian grow in the knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Christians are at war with Satan and it can be difficult for Christians to deal with various circumstances in life that challenge their beliefs, etc. And this is why the Bible states “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25).
After the day of Pentecost, the early Christian church emphasized the fellowship of the saints. We have a wonderful picture of fellowship in the post-Pentecost Church in Acts 2:42-47.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Believers in the early Christian church, as the above passage makes clear, had a single-minded devotion to fellowship together and this was an essential element of the unity of the church. “They are elements the apostles learned from their experience with Jesus: His teaching about His person and work (Matt. 16:18, 19; Luke 24:46) and their Christian responsibility as His followers (Matt. 5-7), the fellowship of Christ with His disciples (John 13), the Lord’s supper (the breaking of bread; Matt. 26:17-30), and His prayer life for and with the disciples (Matt. 6:5-13; Luke 11:1-13; John 17).”[1]
There was a certain unity of spirit that existed in the early church where they all had a unity in heart and purpose as believers in Christ. This spiritual unity among the believers made them sensitive to the needs of others with a bent to meet those needs even if it meant selling their own possessions for the relief of others. They were together daily participating in worship, meals, and service to other members. F. F. Bruce writes:
“[T]he believers met regularly in the temple precincts for public worship and public witness, while they took their fellowship meals in one another’s homes . . . The part of the temple precincts where they seem to have gathered habitually was Solomon’s colonnade, running along the east side of the outer court (3:11; 5:12) . . . The common meal could not conveniently be eaten in the temple precincts, so they ate “by households.”[2]
All Christians have the responsibility to worship with other Christians, to aid and comfort their fellow Christians, to use their talents and abilities on behalf the church (Rom. 12:6; 1 Pet. 4:10-11), and to encourage one another. This cannot be done if one is absent from church fellowship. Christians should seek the fellowship of other Christians to assist them in their walk with Christ rather than avoiding Christian fellowship altogether.
At the end of the day, there are no valid biblically sanctioned excuses for believers not attending church and enjoying fellowship with other believers (1 John 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; Gal. 2:9; 2 Cor. 6:14; 1 John 1:3).
[1] R.C. Sproul, gen. ed., The Reformation Study Bible. (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2015 (ESV)), Acts n. 2:42, 1916.
[2] F.F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988), 74.
1 comment
Mauri
Good job making me feel really guilty about not going to church this morning. Felt awful yesterday but slept it off. Made my flimsy excuse this morning but did your blog reading. Guess the Lord was dealing with me as I certainly could have chosen a different one to read. Going to read another now. Love these.