Hebrews 10:25, “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of certain ones, but for the purpose of encouragement [the telic participle], even so much the more, as you see the day [Rapture] approaching.”

 

µὴ ἐγκαταλείποντες τὴν ἐπισυναγωγὴν ἑαυτῶν, καθὼς ἔθος τισίν, ἀλλὰ παρακαλοῦντες, καὶ τοσούτῳ µᾶλλον ὅσῳ βλέπετε ἐγγίζουσαν τὴν ἡµέραν.

 

This verse states only one purpose for assembling namely to be encouraged. (The two words ‘one another’ are not found in this verse.) If the Christian has an ounce of doctrine in his soul, he knows that the only true, meaningful, and lasting encouragement comes from God’s truth metabolized in the soul, and from not people. 

 

The Lord provides for spiritual gifts, not bureaucracy. So, this verse does not command the believer to assemble to provide opportunity for the function of spiritual gifts for the Lord will provide opportunity in most cases for your spiritual gift to function when you have the necessary spiritual growth. If there is no opportunity, then the Lord will provide something else for that believer. In summary, it is not bureaucracy that determines how, when, and where spiritual gifts should function, but the sovereignty of God.

 

Must Christians assemble in an ecclesiastical structure called a church?  Well, in the first two hundred years of the church age there were no churches. Generally, believers met in homes to learn the word and to worship. The church is a classroom of Christians with a professor called a pastor or minister. The classroom can take on many different forms. So, it doesn’t make any difference whether the pastor teaches in a home, office building or an ecclesiastical structure. The key is not the type of building, but the qualification of the pastor. 

 

What causes spiritual growth? The assembling in a church, a home or some type of building must include a qualified pastor. Through the accurate teaching of the pastor, the congregation comes to accept his authority.  If a member of the congregation accepts the pastor’s authority and listens consistently, he can grow spiritually. How far a member is seated from the minister is not the main point. He may be seated fifteen feet away from the pastor, or he may be seated in his home ten thousand miles from the pastor, it makes no difference.  The point is do you accept his authority and do you listen consistently to his teaching.

 

The type of media the pastor uses to communicate is not the issue. The pastor can communicate to his congregation through different medias such as face to face communication, written material, audio, video, radio, television and online. Paul and John for example, communicated to many churches through written material. So, as long as the Christian accepts the authority of a qualified communicator, he can grow. I for example, lived most of my adult spiritual life thousands of miles away from my pastor even so, I grew all the same.

 

One does not have to attend a church in the same geographical area of his residence. In many geographical areas there are no pastors qualified to teach and explain the spiritual life. If a Christian had to attend a Church in such a local area, he would have no hope of spiritual growth. For example, what if you were attending a church in the city of Pusan, South Korea under the ministry of a wonderful minister including an on-line ministry. Suddenly, you become very sick and are taken to a hospital in Seoul and are told that you will be there for at least 6 months. Let’s say that you have a choice of either attending the chapel services in the hospital or receive Biblical instruction online from your pastor in Pusan. Let’s further assume that the minister conducting the chapel service in the hospital knows nothing about the spiritual life and thus listening to his teaching would be a total waste of time. What should you do? Should you attend the chapel services in the hospital and destroy your spiritual life, or should you listen to your pastor’s online ministry and continue to grow spiritually?

 

What if one had to work in a foreign country where there were no pastors. Obviously, one would have to listen to a pastor from another country by some means other than face to face. If God would not permit Biblical communication through various ways, then this believer living in a foreign land would have no hope of advancing in his spiritual life.  However, the method by which a pastor communicates to his congregation is not limited to face to face. Therefore, a man and his family living in a foreign land would have to assemble in their home and learn from their pastor through such means as the written page, MP3s, DVDs or some other type of media. If the children are too young to listen to the pastor, then the parents would be responsible to break down the material and communicate it to the little ones in an interesting and enjoyable way.

 

The assembly of believers in a church is for the purpose of perception, and metabolization. This must be paramount.  Friendship and social life with other believers are optional choices, but never mandatory. This passage is usually misunderstood because two words have been added to many translations that are not in the original language. The Greek does not say that you should assemble to encourage one another. The words one another do not exist in the Greek. The Greek word ‘parakaleo’ is a telic participle and should be translated “for the purpose of encouragement”.  The Telic Participle gives the purpose for the action of the main verb which is “to assemble”. Why do we assemble? We assemble to be encouraged from hearing and learning God’s word.

 

It is true that sometimes social life with other believers can be encouraging, but it is not the source of encouragement.  Occasionally, a believer may associate with a mature believer and be encouraged by that believer because the mature believer expresses divine viewpoint. It is always divine thinking and expression that is encouraging, not social life with believers discussing the problems of life.

 

We assemble to learn the Word and develop social life with God. On the other hand, social life with Christians many times distracts believers from the spiritual life and can be counter-productive for the following reasons:

 

1. Many times, Christians establish wrong priorities in the Christian life through the influence of ignorant, and confused reversionistic Christians.  If you associate with Christians who are ignorant of God’s plan, they will affect you with their ignorance. These same believers are controlled by their sin natures and so will have a negative influence on you. 

 

2. Many believers are distracted from learning and applying Bible doctrine through preoccupation with friendships, romance, and people in general. A good relationship with God must be established before one can have a good relationship with people. Unfortunately, people who are preoccupied with people never develop a good relationship with God. 

 

3. If you associate with legalistic believers (believers adhering to a pseudo spirituality), you must either follow their legalism or be condemned by them.  If you associate with believers who claim that the spiritual life is a series of “don’t” such as: don’t drink, smoke, dance or go to movie theaters, then you either must accept this system of pseudo spirituality or be in conflict with such believers.  In either case, this association will probably place you out of fellowship. 

 

4. If you associate with antinomian Christians, you will likely become antinomian namely if you associate with those who consistently drink heavily, fornicate or are involved in criminality, then you also will be influenced by this type of behavior. The type of people we associate with will have an influence on us.  Can you put a hot coal in your pocket and not get burned?

 

5. Some Christians use other Christians as a means of advancing themselves in business or in a profession.  In other words, they attend a church where there are influential believers who can help them in their profession or business.  These believers are functioning under the lust of inordinate ambition and competition.  Obviously, social life with these believers would be disastrous.

 

6. Many Christians substitute social life with believers for fellowship with God. True Christian fellowship is fellowship with God, not with people. If you have many Christian friends and perform many acts of Christian service with them, but if you do not love God, you are nothing and you accomplish nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

 

Generally, when we sit down in some location to learn God’s word, we do so with other Christians. That is what this passage is saying.  However, having family members or others sit around you as you learn the Word does not contribute to your spiritual growth. Whether you sit in your home with family members to listen to your pastor on television or on radio or some other media, or you attend a large church and are surrounded by a thousand other believers makes no difference. People cannot cause one to grow spiritually; it is the message that causes spiritual growth. 

 

Some Christians think that walking into a church automatically makes them spiritual.  If a believer attends a church where the pastor is totally ignorant of the spiritual life, that believer cannot learn the spiritual life.  Worse yet since that pastor does not understand the spiritual life, he will teach a pseudo spiritual life. In effect by attending that church, the Christian goes backward in his spiritual life.

 

If a person studies engineering under a professor who is totally ignorant of correct principles and concepts of engineering, the student will learn false information about engineering. Before the student was just ignorant, but now he is not only ignorant of true principles and concepts of engineering, but in addition to that, he has acquired false principles and concepts.  Now, he is worse than he was before for he is not only ignorant, but also arrogant. He thinks he understands engineering, and therefore will not even listen to a good professor. This is what happens to Christians when they attend a church where the pastor is ignorant regarding the spiritual life.  They think they understand the spiritual life; they think they are growing spiritually, but in reality, they have gone backwards in their spiritual life and have become very arrogant.

 

This passage is not commanding Christians to attend the nearest geographical Church building where the pastor is allegedly teaching the Word. This passage is commanding all believers to learn the Word of God consistently from a qualified pastor, a qualified spiritual professor.  “But grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Growth does not come through interaction with other believers. Growth does not come through sitting next to another believer in a church. “So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the communicative word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  The spiritual life is not developed through seeing your pastor in a local church, but rather through hearing his message. Your faith is not increased through social life with other Christians, rather through hearing the accurate message of your pastor.