I’ve mentioned before that I don’t do well in churches that are too large. I need a church where I can’t just fade into the background. A place where, despite being something of an introvert, I’ll get to know a substantial number of my brothers and sisters because I see the same people week after week. The reason for this, I’ve come to realize, is that I won’t continue going if I’m only going for myself.
In Protestant Christianity, the focus of our Sunday service is usually the sermon. But as I grow older in Christ, I’m coming more and more to think that the sermon may be the least important part of the service. And that the Sunday service itself is probably not the most important thing we do as a local church. Looking back on my own experience, I remember that when I first started going where I do, what initially kept me coming back was that I met some people who were genuinely interested in getting to know me, and that I also wanted to get to know. As time has gone on, though, I’ve found that what really motivates me to keep showing up is being able to bless the brothers and sisters that I’ve come to know.
And I don’t think it’s just me. The author of the book of Hebrews spends nine and a half chapters establishing who Jesus is. And then, as an application, he writes:
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 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.” (Hebrews 10:23-25)
There’s nothing in this passage about listening to sermons. Continuing to meet together is commanded, but not for the purpose of being spectators, or even students. Rather, we’re told to keep meeting together so that we can encourage and motivate one another to live out our identities in Jesus.
We respond to who Christ is, first by holding on to him, and second, by building up one another. What we do for each other comes out of an understanding of what Jesus has done for us. Since I know who I am, I am called to remind others who they are, and what Jesus has done for them. And the worse the news of the world gets, the more I need to encourage my brothers and sisters, reminding them that we have immediate, intimate access to God through Christ Jesus. We are not just a bunch of people living our worldly lives to the best of our ability. Rather, we are the children of God, and God himself lives within us by his Spirit. We are holy people. We are called to do this because sometimes we forget, and we need our brothers and sisters to remind us.
Near the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul writes:
I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:14-16)
Paul instructed the Roman believers because of his “priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God.” In other words, the gospel, as Paul understands it, is not just the good news of how to become a child of God, it also includes instruction in how to live as a child of God.
But it’s not Paul’s responsibility alone. He declares in this passage that they themselves are “competent to instruct one another.” Importantly, he doesn’t say they are competent just to teach children or new believers, but to teach one another. Now the believers in Rome were already “filled with knowledge.” That is, they know how they ought to live as children of God. And they were obeying what they know – the only sense I can make of Paul’s statement that they are “full of goodness.” But it would make no sense for Paul to say that they are competent to instruct one another unless there was an ongoing need for such instruction.
In the church, there is a specific ministry of teaching, to which some Christians are called and gifted (Romans 12:6-7). It is a serious responsibility, and only those who are called to this office should take it upon themselves (James 3:1). But that’s pretty clearly not what Paul is talking about in this passage. “One another” implies more than just the few with that specific gift. And the word translated “instruct” here is noutheteō which, according to the Blue Letter Bible means, “to admonish, warn, exhort.” So the instruction Paul talks about in this passage is not teaching, in the sense of imparting new knowledge, but rather reminding and encouraging brothers and sisters to live up to what they already know. The Roman believers needed this both from Paul himself, and from each other. This is what the Hebrews 10 passage I quoted above is also talking about.
Underscoring the importance of this is the list of names Paul includes in the last chapter of Romans. There are short greeting at the end of most of the epistles in the New Testament, but none come close to this one in length. It really looks like Paul sent his greetings to every single person in Rome that he knew. And considering that, when he wrote this letter, he had not yet ever been to Rome, that may be what he actually did. It’s notable, however, that Paul does not say “I send greetings” but rather uses the command, “greet.”1 That is, through his language, Paul is promoting fellowship in the body of Christ by telling the believers in Rome to greet one another – something he says explicitly in verse 16.
This list is important for another reason as well. In Paul’s era, long before the invention of mass production, paper and ink were not trivial expenses. Additionally, writing out a list of names by hand took time and effort. Calling out people by name and by household shows that they were important. Many of them worked hard for the sake of Christ’s kingdom. All of them were Paul’s brothers and sister. And they are my brothers and sisters as well, even though I have never met them. Yet most of them are people that we today know nothing about, beyond what is written here in this chapter. The Holy Spirit wanted us to know that there were believers in Rome who were worthy of honor, but whose deeds went unrecorded. The fact that we see this one small glimpse should be taken as an indication that there were others also. It’s certain, in fact, that there were a great many Christians, from all over the Roman world, who served God faithfully, even unto death in many cases.
And today there are also many like that; faithful brothers and sisters who work hard in the Lord but who are not recognized among the Christian “superstars” (and in most cases, they don’t want to be). Part of what we were created to do is to honor those fellow workers who are around us, and to encourage them to remain faithful to the end. And part of it is also to let our brothers and sisters honor and encourage us.
We need to get out of our heads the idea that Christian fellowship means having fun with other believers. Very often it is fun, but that’s not at all the point. The point is to sharpen our brothers and sisters (Proverbs 27:17), to encourage them, and to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
God seems to like irony. Jesus became king by dying. He overcame evil by becoming its victim. I save my life by giving it up, and lose it by holding on to it. (Matthew 16:25) And the most important part of our Sunday morning worship service is not part of the service at all, but what happens before and after. That’s when, instead of sitting in our pews, we do the work of ministry. Or we don’t, in which case we fail to fulfill our own purpose of helping a brother or a sister fulfill their purpose.
And it’s not just on Sunday morning. I also build up my brothers and sisters in my small group, when I invite them over to my house, or accept an invitation to somebody else’s house, when I share conversation and a cup of coffee with someone, or even when I just encourage them with a phone call, an email or a text. And by encouraging others, I find I’ve encouraged myself. Building up the church, reminding believers of what they’ve learned and encouraging them to obey what they know, is not just the pastor’s job, or the staff’s job; it’s every Christian’s job. It’s my job.
This, then, is what keeps me coming back. It’s not the sermon and it’s not the music, although both of these are important. It’s ministering to my brothers and sisters, and allowing them to minister to me. And if this isn’t something you’re experiencing, if nobody around you is going out of their way to build you up, then here’s a suggestion: start it. In your conversations actively look for ways to remind a brother or a sister who they are in Christ, and encourage them to keep doing whatever it is God created them to do. Do that and see if it catches on. Not everyone will take the hint and start following your example, but it’s a good bet that some will. Congratulations! You’ve made your local church a little better. More than that, you’ve made your local church a little more like Jesus. God did not create us to be Lone Rangers, but to be members of one body. It’s when we work to build that body that we are actually being the church.
1. I owe this insight to Douglas J. Moo’s 2018 The Letter to the Romans (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids.