People who think being a good Christian is tied to being AT church Sunday AM, PM, and Wednesday night don’t get it. Which service, or services, a person attends is not the gage of spiritual maturity. After all, if we want to be like the early church in Jerusalem in our church attendance, we’re missing it by five days. Consider Acts 2:46, “And day by day, attending the temple together..” The early Christians worshipped formally… at the Temple.. every day. Worship was not just a one or two day a week thing for them. So much for our standard.
Paul used the Sabbath to expose their misunderstanding about worship times in Romans 14:4-6…
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.
Some demanded worship should be on the Sabbath… Saturday… as commanded by God. Others contended that worship was best on Sunday, the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Another said their worship was not restricted to any one day, they worshipped every day. Each had Biblical support for their view. Each was seeking to honor God with their actions. All were believers. So who was right?
They all were. Honoring God isn’t about the rules, regulations, and requirements of men… it’s about honoring God, loving Him with all our being, and doing such in spirit and in truth. If that meant worshipping on the Sabbath (Saturday), Sunday, or each day of the week… so be it. Each person was responsible before God to follow their conscious as led by God.
Now… if the local church agrees to meet on Sunday morning, the believer should support such. If the local church agrees to worship on Saturday, the believer should support such with their attendance. If it’s Friday night… Tuesday night… or Wednesday night… the believer will want to be with their brothers and sisiters to worship God corporately. Thus “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together…” Whenever the local church we are a part of assembles for worship, we’re to be there.
But worshipping God is not restricted to a corporate gathering of believers… that’s where it begins. As Paul wrote in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” How many days a week are we in our body? Obviously, every day. That means every day… every act… everything we do is to be considered an act of worship to God!
Worshipping with the family of faith is necessary for a healthy walk with God. When that happens is up to that congregation. If it is Sunday AM and Wednesday… so be it. If it is Sunday AM, PM, and Wednesday… so be it. If it is Sunday AM and small groups the rest of the week… so be it. The one thing that IS required is that worship is not compartmentalized to just when the church meets for worship.
This I will say… Sunday isn’t enough when it comes to worshipping God. Those who only worship God when the church assembles are missing out. Those who don’t worship every day in everything they do misunderstand the Scripture. Worship of God is a lifestyle. Anything short of that falls short of what is the heart desire of genuine believers in Christ.