If I’m a Christian and I don’t go to church I’m in great danger. We are not talking here about taking the occasional day off from church services because of vacation, the need for rest, or just plain feeling lazy on that day. Each of us needs these “breaks” and they are healthy. But if I’m not part of a local church congregation, if I’m not committed to regular accountable participation with other Christians in organized corporate church-life under God-inspired, Biblical leadership the Scriptures say I’m in trouble in at least three big ways.
1. If I don’t go to church I’m forsaking other Christians.
“And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” – Hebrews 10:24-25
When I’m not attending the same church regularly I’ve actually, in practice, left God’s people. I’m forsaking them. Church is the main arena that God has established for the saints to love and encourage one another as Christ commanded us (John 15:12). It’s the main God-designed place where I’m to stimulate other Christians to love and good deeds. How can I do this if I don’t congregate with them? How can I do this if I merely attend church services here and there without ever growing close to other followers of Christ so that I may know them and they me? No, I’ve left them if I don’t join with them regularly. In practice, I’ve forsaken them if I don’t share life with them.
2. If I don’t go to church I’m vulnerable to Satanic attack.
“In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ” – 1 Corinthians 5:4-5
In context this passage is dealing with a church-goer who is committing serious sin without stopping. Paul’s response is to remove this fellow from the congregation – to excommunicate him so to speak – to throw him out of the church. This offender would now be outside of the church’s protection and out in Satan’s area of influence – the world – where he would be more easily attacked. In this guy’s case it was better for him to be put out of the church and attacked physically by Satan so that he’d come to his senses, fear God, and turn back to Christ’s ways (which he did end up doing as we find out in 2 Corinthians, at which point he was welcomed back into the church).
Now, maybe I’m not committing serious sin like this guy did; and maybe I haven’t been forced out of a church. But if I’m not under Godly leadership and the spiritual protection of a local congregation, even because of my own doing, I’m outside of Christ’s protection. Since the Church on earth (made up of many local congregations all around the world) is Christ’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:27), I’m living outside of Christ (practically) if I’m not committed to one. I may still be a Christian, no doubt. But I’m a Christian living outside of Christ and His Church in practice. I’m living just as an atheist or non-believer does. Therefore, like them, Satan can get at me in ways he never could if I were kept safe inside Christ’s Church, His Body. He can seek to destroy my flesh in ways he never could do before. But, if I’m committed to a local God-ordained church I’m spiritually protected from the Enemy.
3. If I don’t go to church I’m acting like antichrist.
“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” – 1 John 2:18-19
I may not be an antichrist but I’m acting like one if I go away from my local church without joining another one. This is one of the big signs the Apostle John said to watch out for when looking for antichrists. He said they’d be apart of us, of our local congregation, but then they’d leave. They were never really one of us he said, since their actions showed they were against us by leaving.
This is what I’m doing if I leave church-life. By my actions I’m showing that I’m against it (or “anti” it). I, like many others, have been hurt by Christians more than non-Christians; and I’ve lived with too much religious hypocrisy in all my days of attending the local congregation. I’ve been so busy that I’ve felt like I couldn’t make it to church regularly (though I’d usually rationalize it in my mind convincing myself that this was only for a season). I’ve talked myself into thinking that praying and reading my Bible when I could would hold me over until I eventually joined a church and became committed again. I’ve used the excuse that I had Christian friends and that that, after all, was sort of like church in the end. All of these reasons (and more) were not good enough, from God’s Word’s point of view, for me to go away from a committed life of church participation.
Not everyone who forsakes regular church attendance is an antichrist…they’re just doing what antichrist does, that’s all. And I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to look like that. I’m not against Christ’s Church (or churches) I’m for it. Why do I want to live with all my excuses for not being a part of it?
These things are not meant to hurt me but to encourage me with truth if I’m not committed to one of Christ’s many local congregations. If I’m not, I need to become a regular participant in a Bible-preaching, Gospel-proclaiming Christian church in my area.
