Misused And Abused Bible Verses- Part 1
Over the next several days I will be taking a look at several different Bible verses that are commonly misused and abused in Baptist circles. Our goal should always be to understand the Bible in context and hold to its intended meaning not our man-made meaning.
The first verse that I want to look at today is Hebrews 10:25. It says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. This verse is commonly used to say that we need to be in church 3 times a week…every time the doors are open. Pastors use this verse as a proof verse of church attendance. It is used to guilt people into attending church at every possible opportunity. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be faithful to our churches. I am saying that this verse is not at all teaching that and to use this verse in that way is to misuse and abuse Scripture.
In order to accurately understand the true meaning of this verse you must understand the context. The book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians…people who had left Judaism in order to follow Christ. These were true believers in Christ who had left Judaism, in which they had been born and raised, to become followers of Christ…believeing that Jesus was the Messiah.
As a result of their decision to follow Christ they faced tremendous hostility from their own people. They were ostracized by their families and received persecution from neighbors. They were facing real suffering and all of this persecution was a result of their belief in Christ as Savior.
The High Priest was even persecuting them. He had all Christian Jews automatically banished from the holy places because they were considered unclean.
- They could not go to the synagogue
- They could not go to the Temple
- They could not offer sacrifices
- They could not communicate with the priests
- They could not have anything to do with their own people
- They were cut off from their own society
This was all happening because they believed and clung to the fact that Jesus was the messiah. They were banished from every sacred thing they had ever known and this was tearing at them.
These Christians had not been saved for very long and were not mature enough to deal with this kind of persecution. They were in danger of going back to their previous lifestyle…back into the patterns and practices of Judaism. Many of them were leaving the church (the assembling of themselves) to go back to their previous ritualistic lifestyle. They were saved, but due to persecution, they still hung on to the habits of the former lives. They were having difficulty making a clean break …they were in danger of mixing the old with the new. The writer of Hebrews is trying to get the readers to understand that they have no need to fear persecution….there is no need to go back into their former lifestyles. The Christ they had committed to is above everything else…He is above the rituals, He is above the sacrifices, He is above the high priest, He is above the law. He is above everything that their former lives represented. They had no reason to respond in fear. They needed to stay committed to Christ in the face of this persecution.
This verse is not teaching about church attendance. It is teaching that we need to stay true to our faith in the midst of persecution. We need to resist the urge to return to the sinful lifestyles we lived before committing to Christ. Let’s not abuse and misuse God’s Word.
Hello! I have just stumbled upon your blog and this series. A very interesting point you make here. While I do not think we all need to participate in everything the church is doing (like you said be at church everytime the doors are open) I do think that we should make church a priority in our lives. I know of a family who “skip” church to go shopping on Sunday mornings and I see that as putting God really low on your priority list. We need to remember that worship is not for us and the church is the only institution that exists for it’s non members. We need to support that.
Thank you for taking the time to post these insightful articles. However, I’m rather disappointed in this one. I was hoping that you would cite some of your research here or at least expound on this point further. I honor the hardship our brethren in earlier generations faced when obeying the gospel. But since the persecution I’m most familiar with is being ‘beaten up’ over church attendance ’3 times a week’ I was hoping for a little more comfort from this article.
S,
Are there specific aspects of this article that you would like expounded upon or certain points for which you would like me to provide my research? I would be more than happy to do so.