3 Ways the Church Has a Profound Effect on Christians
Our fellow Christians are important to our walk with God.
Doctors did some research on a community of people who had very few health problems. What the doctors found amazed them: the answer was found in the community itself.
They had to appreciate the idea that the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are. - Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, 10-11
The church - our brothers and sisters in Christ - has a “profound effect on who we are” as well.
We encourage each other onward.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)
The Hebrews writer encourages Christians to “hold fast” to their loyalty to Christ and the hope they have in Him. Because that can be difficult at times, Christians need each other to encourage each other onward in love and good works.
When Christians assemble together, it’s important to strengthen each other and remind each other of our hope in Christ Jesus.
Forsaking or abandoning the assembling of Christians together removes a Christian from their support system.
We help each other through temptation and trials.
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)
If a Christian gets ”overtaken” in sin, those who are spiritual are to help restore them gently and carefully. Our love for each other means we have a responsibility to help one another through temptation and sin (James 5:19-20).
By helping each other “bear” the other’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ.
When Christians fall, their brethren aren’t supposed to stand around watching and saying, “Well, let’s see if he gets up.” We are supposed to run to our brethren who stumble and fall to help them out of their sins - and we must do so with gentle, loving care, as we would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).
We strengthen each other in love.
…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16)
Each Christian is a part of the body of Jesus - the church of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23). We all have our “part to play” in the function of the body - the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
Christians aren’t supposed to be working against each other - but we are supposed to all be working together for the good of the body of Christ. When every part of Jesus’ body - every Christian - does its share, the result is the growth of the body, which strengthens the entire body in love.
My brothers and sisters in Christ have a “profound effect” on who I am.
We’re there for each other through the good times and bad, pray for each other, and strengthen each other.
What a blessing our brothers and sisters in Christ are!
Sadly, too many Christians see church as an hour on Sunday and nothing more. Thanks for posting this...
Our fellowship with other Christians is more important now than ever before. This dark world we are living in now can easily engulf us without the church and the fellowship one with another!