Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
Throughout church history there have always been professing Christians who think that they don’t need the local church. With the number who have gone down that path, there has essentially been an equivalent list of reasons for why they don’t need the local gathering of the saints.
In the early days, some sought to forsake all earthly goods and live a life of solitary devotion to God rather than the life lived by faith with others. There are still some who imbibe that thinking today.
Then there are those who believe all they need for a local church is their family, so instead of going to church they just read the Bible together or do family worship times.
There are also those who desire to homestead and get off the grid, away from the government and other influences, and so they isolate themselves and their families in that pursuit.
Lastly, there are those who have had a negative church experience, perhaps they’ve even been deeply hurt by the actions of those at their previous church, and so they’ve sworn off going to church altogether.
Not to diminish the hurt that a believer might be recovering from or the importance of family worship times, there is no legitimate excuse for a Christian to regularly neglect the gathering of the saints. The chief reason this is true is because Christ commands us to not neglect the gathering of the saints (Heb. 10:24-25). To neglect the regular gathering of the saints is sin and there are no legitimate excuses for sin. But there is another reason as well: Just as we were not created to be alone, we were not saved to be alone.
The issue that Paul was dealing with in the Corinthian church was not an issue of some members neglecting the local gathering, but what he tells them in correction of their problem applies to this one as well. One part of the body cannot say to another that it doesn’t need that part. An eye cannot exist and properly function on its own.
Likewise a Christian cannot exist and properly function on their own. While family worship is a wonderful thing, that’s not enough. If families isolate themselves from the rest of the body, where is teaching, the correction, and the necessary accountability for the parents and other family members taking place?
By isolating yourself and your family, and thereby ignoring the clear commands of Scripture, you are showing how necessary biblical instruction, qualified leadership, and the rest of the body are for individual saints to persevere on the path of Scripture. Here’s what I mean.
If you’re neglecting the gathering because you think that you’re more spiritual and knowledgeable than everyone and that the local church will just slow down your spiritual growth, you’re wrong. You’re actually spiritually immature, prideful, and living in disobedience to Christ (see Prov 18:1). The local church, in that case, will actually be a means of grace for you to repent and grow into maturity.
The monk in the desert is not the higher spiritual life. Quite the opposite. The regular saint who has joined the local church and regularly attends it is showing a greater crop of good spiritual fruit than any isolated believer. Our church attendance doesn’t save us, but it is one of the primary means that Christ has given us to persevere in the faith (Heb 3:12-15).
Juts as an eyeball cannot last long outside of the body it was formerly attached to, we cannot last long outside of the context of the local church. We need the weekly gathering of the saints. We need to worship with them and receive the benefit of their spiritual gifts, prayers, exhortations, encouragements, and even rebukes. If we are in Christ then we belong to his body, united by faith and members one of another.
