Don’t Neglect Meeting Together, Instead Do This
Neglect Meeting Together Or …
Heb. 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
Heb. 10:20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
Heb. 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
Heb. 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb. 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Heb. 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb. 10:25 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.
As we find more different ways to be the church and to do church, this verse has come up more than once.
“don’t neglect meeting together”
It’s worth taking a good look at this verse, like every verse in the Bible in the context of the verses and circumstances around it.
What is great is that it is preceded by the opposite thing. Do ______ instead of neglecting to meet together. I think if we focused on that other thing more we’d see a lot of fruit.
The opposite of neglecting to meet together, of course, is to “stir up one another to love and good works.” Isn’t that wild? The opposite of us not getting together is stirring up one another to love and good works.
That means that when we do get together, the purpose and motivation of that time together is for us to stir one another up to love and good works. Does that have to wait until Sunday? Does that have to wait until the end of a quarantine?
You already know the answer to that.
So for now, I can look forward to the day when I see Phil N. Orange in person. I’m going to stir him up to love and good works so hard he won’t know what hit him! I’m going to shake so many people’s hands and give so many high fives that you’re going to be more stirred up to love and good works than a MERINGUE.
But until then, how can we stir that up without being face to face? If you read the earlier verses, you already know how. Let’s draw near to Jesus, our High Priest. Let’s seek Him out and prove His promise that if we abide in Him, we’d bear much fruit. That didn’t have any conditionals on it like “you’ll bear much fruit if you can get together” or “You’ll bear much fruit as long as you’re within 6 feet of one another.”
We are ridiculously free. Let’s use that freedom to stir up love in the Church.
–
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.