23 May ATTEND AND RESTORE: WHY BELIEVERS MUST STILL MEET IN GOD’S HOUSE
I rejoiced when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the LORD (Psalm 122:1). That joy reminds us that worshiping together is a gift and a privilege. Yet the Bible never pretends the house of God has always been perfect. Our Lord Jesus himself entered the temple and drove out those who had turned it into a marketplace. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves, declaring, “My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12–13). God’s heart is for a place of prayer and holiness (Isaiah 56:7), and the LORD still asks plainly, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? I have even seen it, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:11).
Scripture is honest about failures among God’s people and among those who serve. Joshua’s camp had its Achan (Joshua 7:19–25). Elisha’s ministry was tainted by Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20–27). Hophni and Phinehas, though priests, behaved wickedly at the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22). Even judges and leaders—Joel and Abiah—did not always follow in their father’s ways (1 Kings 8:2–3). Israel often practiced what is wrong in secret (2 Kings 17:9). Among Jesus’ twelve was Judas Iscariot, a treasurer who became a thief (John 12:4–6). Paul mourned the desertion of Demas (2 Timothy 4:10). Revelation warns of false assemblies and seducing teachers—the “synagogue of Satan” and the woman called Jezebel (Revelation 3:9; 2:20). These examples show corruption can exist even inside God’s own institutions.
Because failure and hypocrisy exist, some might be tempted to withdraw from the church altogether. But Scripture gives a different, stronger call. We must not abandon the gathering of the saints “as the habit of some is,” but rather continue meeting together to encourage and strengthen one another, especially as the day of the Lord approaches (Hebrews 10:25). We are called to work out our own salvation with reverent diligence—“with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)—not to escape community because of other people’s weaknesses.
So stay faithful to the assembly. Attend church to worship, to receive teaching, to be corrected, and to serve. Bring your prayers, your discernment, and your holy life into the fellowship. Be part of the healing and reform God calls for, not a bystander to its decline. Where there is corruption, speak the truth in love; where there is failing leadership, pray and seek biblical restoration; where there is opportunity to serve, step in humbly and faithfully.
Beloved, the presence of people who fall short does not negate the value of the church. God’s house is meant to be a house of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7). Let us therefore continue to gather, to guard the purity of the assembly, and to build one another up until the Lord comes.
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