Some Christians don’t go to church and you’ll hear them say, “Well, I haven’t found a church I like yet.” Or, “I work and Sunday is my only day off!”
But meeting with other Christians is indeed commanded in the Bible, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25 NLT). Christians have an obligation to fellowship with other Christians—and the church is our consistent place to do just that.
Here is why the church exists: for the glorification of God, the edification of the saints, and the evangelization of the world. In other words, for “upward, inward, and outward” purposes.
That’s why believers should go to church. But too often people make excuses for not attending.
But There Are Hypocrites in the Church!
Sometimes people will say, “The reason I don’t go to church is because there are too many hypocrites!” Guess what? There were hypocrites in the first century church too. They had rivalries, heresies, and some pretty radical immorality. There was even a hypocrite among Jesus’ handpicked disciples.
To help us understand this, Jesus told them a parable about tares and wheat that grow side by side (Matthew 13:24-30). The two look exactly the same, until the time the tare actually uproots the wheat.
Satan has his “tares,” or fakes, out there, so we need to just be aware of it. Wherever there is the genuine, there will be the counterfeit.
Satan would love you to see a few of those counterfeits and say, “That’s it, I’m not going to church anymore. Too many hypocrites!”
So, let’s not let him prevail. Let’s all pray that God will help each of us to be a consistent witness and representative of Him to a watching world.
God bless you all, and as Billy Graham always used to say at the end of his crusade telecasts, “And be sure to go to church on Sunday!”
This article originally appeared on Greg’s blog and is reposted here by permission.