Christian Life 101: Church Membership
The Biblical Reality
In the Scriptures, to find a Christian almost always necessitates they are apart of a local body. Christians are apart of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12). There are no lone-ranger Christians; to be a Christian without a church home, is to be like a bee without a hive.
You were made for community! Jesus was surrounded by 12 men and had an inner circle of three.
Likewise, in the book of Acts and the birth of the church, what do we see? In Acts 2:42, ESV, and following, the brothers “devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.”
The Need to Gather
If the early church that close to Christ’s ascension needed to gather together, how much more then do we this far removed from the historical Christ need to gather? John Wesley once said that, “The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.”
If the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, he will surely pick off the straying and drifting sheep.
Give yourselves to the hearing of the Word preached, to the exhortation from fellow believers and encouragement they offer, and to partaking of the grace of the Lord’s Supper as a collective body. The church is to be the closest replica of heaven on this side of eternity.
I wonder, do you find yourselves far off from the gathering? Does the Lord’s Day only seem to you the Lord’s hour?
The first day of the week is to be the best and brightest day of our week — it is the market day of the soul!
So, if you do not belong to a local church as a covenanting member, with pastors keeping watch over your soul and fellow believers knowing your heart, commit yourselves to the Lord’s assembly and grow in grace with us as one body.
