Why Hanging out with Other Believers is Essential
Part of the miracle that comes with new birth in addition to being forgiven and receiving life in Christ, is being adopted into a family. Our Heavenly Father is establishing His family, which is made up of those who believe or trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus is calling us to be one as he and His Father are one.
In other teachings Paul says that, Jesus is the head and we are the body of Christ. You cannot imagine an arm living life separated from the body and Jesus cannot either. You have a place in the family and an opportunity to live out our mission as we allow God to accomplish all He needs to accomplish in this age before he ushers in the age to come.
God created his church so we could live life with Him and learn how to love one another, which means you will get your feathers ruffled and have opportunities to show grace. You will be able to build others up by using your spiritual gifts. You will be able to pool your resources with others to love on others in ways you wouldn’t be able to on your own. You will be shown how to live in Christ and you will show others how to live as we grow to maturity in Christ.
This family is guided by the Holy Spirit as we go and grow. He is the one who is putting His family together. He leads and corrects and teaches and comforts us. Allow Him to lead you, which will require us to submit and accept His leadership.
We were not told this would be easy, just the opposite. Life is complicated and so is family. Make a decision to be part of the family and stick to it.
Read the following passages:
John 17.20-26: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 13.34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Galatians 5.25: Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Acts 2.42-47: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Romans 12.4-8: For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Hebrews 10.24-25: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 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.
Acts 4.32-35: All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
1 Peter 2.9-10: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.