Return to Community
For Meditation
One of the hardest things that the pandemic has done to us is isolate us from one another. This has made it difficult to manage our lives logistically, but it has also done something to our souls. Even for the most introverted among us, God made us not only to be in deep relationship with God but also in relationship with one another. There is no such thing as a flourishing life without community.
We don’t know exactly what the people were going through that are addressed in the book of Hebrews. But whether it was persecution or even an ancient pandemic (!), we know they were facing the temptation to privatize their faith and just focus on being a Christian all by themselves. In this section, the writer of Hebrews is urging them that in spite of the challenges or risks, do not give up meeting together! Do not give up loving one another, encouraging one another! It is vital to our souls and it is the nature of our faith that we experience a collective embodiment of the gospel in our relationships with one another. And as he reminds us with joy, Christ died to make this community possible.
As you prepare for worship this Sunday, consider the factors in your life right now that are tempting you to withdraw from community, and invite the Holy Spirit to reinvigorate your desire to return to God’s people.
Hebrews 10:23–25
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.