It is important to gather with a body of other believers in worship each week. If you’re reading this I’m guessing that you know that already. This past Sunday you likely woke up early, got dressed, entered your car, and drove to church where you worshipped God with other believers.
But if a non-Christian asked you, “Why do you go to a worship service each week;” what would you tell him? You would have to ask yourself some questions. Do you attend church because of what you get out of it? Do you attend church as a way to earn righteousness before God? Do you attend church because it’s your spiritual family and you want to spend time with your family? Do you attend church because it is what you have always done?
Let me pose another scenario to you. What if someone said, “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” What if someone said, “I don’t have to go to church to show that I love Jesus.” How would you respond to those declarative statements?
Starting today we’re going to examine Hebrews 10:23–25 and explore this passage in the next several articles. Perhaps these are familiar verses for you. They are definitely relevant verses for the local church to study.
We look at Hebrews 10:23–25 as part of our series of articles about discipleship we’ve been exploring together this year. Thus far we’ve learned that authentic disciples of Jesus embrace God’s word (2 Tim 3:16–17) and embody God’s kingdom (Phil 3:17–21). Today we’ll begin to learn how disciples encourage one another from Hebrews 10:23–25.
Hebrews is a unique book. Not a lot of pastors like to preach from Hebrews because it’s long (thirteen chapters), it’s difficult to preach (it contains twenty-nine Old Testament quotations and fifty-three Old Testament allusions), and it’s difficult to interpret (Hebrews is famous for its “warning passages”[1]).
Hebrews was probably composed around AD 62[2] and addressed to a local community of Jewish believers[3] located in the city of Rome. Hebrews 10:23–25 is part of Hebrews 10:19–25 which is one single, skillfully composed sentence in Greek.[4] Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish believers to mature in their faith by focusing on the superiority of Christ and his work.
With that background work done let’s look at the verses briefly together. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:23–25, NASB).[5]
Based on what we read we learn that the proper response to Christ for a Christian is to hold fast to the confession of faith, stimulate one another to love and good deeds, and to encourage one another as they wait for the Lord’s return. This means that while you don’t have to attend church to be a Christian, one of the signs that you are a Christian is that you attend church.
I realize those are strong statements that need explanations, and we’ll do that in the coming weeks.
[1] Here’s a list of those famous warning passages: “The Danger of Drifting“(Heb 2:1-4); “The Danger of Disobedience“ (Heb 3:7-4:13); “The Danger of Degeneration“ (Heb 5:11-6:20); “The Danger of Despising“ (Heb 10:26-39 or Heb 10:19-39); and “The Danger of Denying“ (Heb 12:25-29).
[2] I believe Hebrews was written around AD 62 for the following reasons. The readers appear to be second generation believers (Heb 2:3-4), so the date cannot be earlier than AD 60. Clement of Rome utilized this letter, so it must have been written before AD 96. The temple rituals are described as still going on (Heb 9:6-9; 10:1-4), so the letter must have been written before AD 64.
[3] Throughout the letter there are no references to Gentile society, no description of a Jewish-Gentile controversy, and the entire background of the epistle is placed in a Jewish history and religion.
[4] Some scholars have called this section a “sustained exhortation.”
[5] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.