The epistle to the Hebrews was written in large part to exhort professing Christians to continue on with the Lord. Some were being tempted to turn back, and the Biblical writer warns them urgently of the awful consequences of leaving Christ.
Within this context we are exhorted, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing” (Heb 10:25). In view here, obviously, are the stated formal gatherings of the church. And the point is that attendance at these meetings is not only our duty—it is our lifeline, the means by which we are strengthened to continue with the Lord. The public gathering of the people of God is one of God’s appointed means of keeping us on the way to glory. We call it a “means of grace.” Simply put, we meet together because we need it.
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.” B.B. Warfield, the great Presbyterian theologian, comments here that in reading this you can almost see the Biblical writer snarl as he writes that last phrase—“as some are in the habit of doing.” Who are these people who are so very strong and so supremely holy that they do not need this divinely appointed means of grace? Are they really so strong, so secure, so advanced that they do not need the common worship and ministry of the Word which God has appointed for them? What arrogance! What fools! They are courting the very worst of all dangers, and they seem oblivious to it.
Warfield comments further that as in everything else, even here our Lord himself sets the example. Following his baptism and the mount of temptation, he came back home to Nazareth and on the Sabbath day went to the synagogue of meeting “as his custom was.” It was our Lord’s practice to take his place with the people of God in the stated place of worship to which he belonged. This One, who above all others was pleasing to God in all things, this One who is supremely the perfect man, without sin, felt that even he could not neglect regular public worship. For all its imperfections, and for all its dullness, and for all there was about it that was beneath him, he saw it as a divine provision for him. Even our Lord needed it, and he was faithful to it.
We “go to church” because it is good for us, because we need it, and because God commands it. Our attendance at our gathered meetings has much to offer us. Whether we know it or not, we cannot do without them. And our attitude toward them speaks volumes about us.
