God’s people have been meeting together for the purposes of worship, study, encouragement, etc. for a very long time. People were designed to be social creatures (Genesis 2:18) with the earliest groups being families who sometimes grew into tribes (Exodus 1:1-5). In God’s dealings with people, some of the tribes joined together to become a nation (Exodus 19:5-6). After Christ appeared on the earth, the people of God from every nation were joined together as an assembly (or church) without regard to their nationality on earth (Acts 10:34, 35, 48; Acts 2:38, 46-47).
Throughout the Bible, we see God making community by joining people together. We see much the same thing in the common organizations we set up to accomplish various tasks. We see teams, families, corporations, government groups and other groups of people working together for various purposes that could not be accomplished individually.
When God’s people meet together, it is for the purpose of establishing and reinforcing community between each other and also with God, so as to form a single collection (Romans 12:4-5; I Corinthians 12:12-14, 20) with many members who work together for common goals.
People who believe they are alone tend to be discouraged (I Kings 19:9-10, 18), while even small groups reinforce each other (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Even Jesus wanted company at his greatest challenge (Matthew 26:36-38). Jesus warns us that we are not useful alone (John 15:4-5, 12, 17; Matthew 18:20) and that groups can be used to correct bad behavior (Matthew 18:15-17) since a group has more influence than a single person.
We must be careful of the groups we associate with since an assembly of bad people will reinforce bad behavior (Exodus 23:1-3; Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 13:20; I Corinthians 5:9-13; 15:33). Instead, we are to assemble with other children of God as part of God’s family (Romans 8:12-17; I John 3:1-10) joined with each other and with God (I John 1:3, 7, Revelation 3:20-21) to reinforce good thoughts, good behavior and good relationships.
Churches, or assemblies of God’s people, are designed to encourage positive and pure thoughts and actions (Hebrews 10:19-25). These assemblies have often been tied to meals (I Corinthians 11:33), presentations (Acts 20:7), remembering the death of Christ by the Lord’s Supper (I Corinthians 11:20-26), prayer (Acts 16:13), fellowship (Acts 2:41-42), study (Acts 17:1-3), and singing (Hebrews 2:11). All of these activities reinforce the relationship between the people of the group and also with God.
God’s long-term goal is to take his assembly to where he “lives” so that both God and his people can make a community together (Revelation 21:1-8) separated from those who do bad things. Our meetings now are a preparation for that eventual meeting in heaven (Hebrews 11:16).
Written by Cliff Copass