Day 384 · Year 2 · Life with God
Not neglecting to meet together
Hebrews is blunt about what isolation does to a soul.
Today's passage
Hebrews 10:24-25
24And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.
25Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Hebrews calls you into the strange, costly, beautiful work of an embodied church. 'Consider how to stir one another up to love and good works' — that is active. It is not enough to attend; you are to think about how to bring out love in someone else. And do not neglect meeting together. The Christian life was never designed to be private. If you have been wounded by a church, that is real, and Christ grieves it with you. The answer, however slowly, is rarely 'go it alone.' It is 'find a faithful church and let them know you.'
From the great tradition · paraphrased
John Wesley · Puritans & Post-Reformation · 18th c. · England
John Wesley insisted there is no holy person who is not also a member of a band of fellow pilgrims — that 'holy solitaries' tend to drift, and that grace travels through ordinary committed company.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What two things are we told to do, and what are we told not to do?
- Why does isolation work against Christian growth?
- What is one small step toward (or deeper into) a faithful local church this week?
A prayer to pray
If you are not in a faithful church, ask God to lead you to one. If you are, ask him to show you who you can stir up to love and good works.