It’s so much more than just ‘going to church…’
From Jon Bloom:
That’s why we gather as the church this weekend. We are not merely “going to church.” We are participating in the greatest mystery and most wonderful wonder that any individual or group of human beings can ever experience: oneness with the body and bride of Christ who together become one with Christ in God.
There is an enjoyment of God, a “[taste] of the heavenly gift” and a “[sharing] in the Holy Spirit,” and a “[tasting] of the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come” that cannot be experienced apart from the corporate gathering of Jesus’s church (Hebrews 6:4–5; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Colossians 3:15–16). And there is a manifestation of Jesus’s presence that only occurs when this happens:
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. (Matthew 18:20)
The Bible does instruct us to worship and pray privately (Matthew 6:6). But that will never be the fullest, deepest, most joyful experience of God for us. That is reserved for Christ’s united body, his bride.
That’s the most profound reason we are not to neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). For when it comes to seeing and savoring Jesus Christ to the fullest, it is not good that man should be alone.
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