Craig Blomberg has a post titled “Why Go to Church?” that has some important observations….as far as they go. He notes that “people are abandoning regular church attendance in record numbers” and with little regret. Hebrews 10, says Blomberg, takes their departure seriously. Specifically he means Hebrews 10:24-25, which reads
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. (TNIV)
Reasons for giving up on regular, weekly gatherings are typically “pathetic” and “anthropocentric” rather than “Christocentric.” In other words, many who give up on the weekly gatherings do so out of selfish motives. Moreover, in today’s consumer culture some have become “victims of choices.” Due to the advent of personal transportation, we can easily shop for other churches until our preferences for worship music or Sunday School class schedules are satisfied. Instead, Blomberg admonishes, we should go to church for what we can give rather than for what we can get. Rather than maintaining a balance sheet of how much encouragement or gratitude we can receive, we should seek to administer the gifts that God has given us for the sake of encouraging others.
These observations I can hardly deny. They’re thoroughly biblical. But, I have to ask: Why is it that when people choose to depart from a church for whatever reason that Hebrews 10:24-25 is so quickly employed to apply to those departing and not to those remaining? After all, the Word of God is likened to a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), so couldn’t Hebrews 10:24-25 cut both ways? Shouldn’t the exhortation to “spur [or “arouse” or “provoke”] one another on toward love and good deeds” apply to everyone? Granted the weight on this passage is a warning to those facing intense persecution for their faith that apostasy is nigh should they make it a “habit” of not connecting with other believers and instead try to “go it alone.”
Sidebar
The exhortation is three-fold beginning in verse 22: “let us draw near…let us hold fast…let us consider one another.”
But I wonder, would this mass exodus from church attendance occurring today be on such a large scale if everyone in the church took seriously the command to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds?” Put differently, could it be that many are departing because of churchgoers’ apathy toward the personal struggles and spiritual discouragement that so many experience? Moreover, doesn’t giving love and encouragement to others require some type of reciprocity? If I’m charged to go to church for what I can “give,” shouldn’t there be “takers” on the other end who are benefitting from my gifts?
And, where is leadership in all of this? Are they merely pointing the Hebrews 10:24-25 finger at those who are departing or is the finger pointing inward and outward as well?
I agree with Blomberg’s thesis that we should go to church for what we can give rather than for what we can get…as far as it goes. Yet, I confess that I go to church not just to give but to receive encouragement toward love and good deeds and I’m unconvinced that is wrong of me. If others in the church are repeatedly apathetic toward what I have to give, then it’s highly unlikely that is a church I need to continue attending. For Blomberg’s thesis to work successfully, there must be a mutual exchange of “love and good deeds” if Hebrews 10:24-25 means what it says.