The church might not seem like a spiritual blessing, or maybe it doesn’t seem like a very important one, but it clearly is.

Working Out Our Individual Salvation

In Phil. 2:12, Paul tells the church in Philippi that each of them needs to work out their own salvation.  So, it is true that each of us is responsible for ourselves and making sure that our salvation is alive and well.  But other people can have a very definitive, positive, effect, helping us, if you will, in our pursuit of salvation.  The converse to the negative could also be said, but we’ll leave that for another time.

What Helps Us Work Out Our Salvation?

Jesus could have come to this world and died for our sins and then just left us on our own.  But He did not do that.  Instead, He created the church, not so that we could be saved, as the church does not save anyone.  Only Jesus saves anyone(John 14:6).  Rather, the church is a collection of people who are saved.  Members of the church are there to help each other when one stumbles into sin(Gal. 6:1-2).  They are there to help educate one another so we know what to do and what not to do(II Tim. 3:10-17).  Paul specifically told Timothy that it was the scriptures(for us today, that would be the entirety of the Bible, but at the time, it was what we call the Old Testament and some of what we call the New Testament – some books had not been written yet) that would allow Timothy(and us today) to become wise to salvation(through Jesus).  Without Jesus, there is no salvation, and there is no wisdom that leads to salvation.

What Does This Look Like?

As a person lives their life, they will hopefully learn more and more about how God wants them to live their life.  But that person does not start their walk with God knowing everything.  How do they learn what they need to know?  Well, the two main ways are: (a) reading their Bible(the best way); and (b) hearing from others(those others can be erroneous, so we have to be careful to compare what others say with what the Bible says).

Loving one another is clearly important, as it is mentioned often.  Jesus told His disciples that they needed to love one another AND that people would know they were His disciples by virtue of their love for one another(John 13:34-35).  Paul told the Romans to love another another(Rom. 13:8).  Peter told a vast number of churches to do this in I Pet. 1:22; 3:8.  John told his readers to love one another(I John 3:11, 23: 4:7, 11-12; II John 5).  Part of loving one another is encouraging people to do what God wants us to do, and encouraging people not to do things that God forbids.

The Church

The church is a group of people who come together for the purpose of praising God(Eph. 5:15-20), remembering Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins(I Cor. 11:18, 23-26), provoking one another to love(there it is again) and good works(Heb. 10:24-25) and giving back to God some of what He has given us/blessed us with(I Cor. 16:1-2).  It is during times like these when the group(church) gets together that we can really help one another.  This is not to say that we cannot also help one another outside a group period of worship, but we can discuss that at a later time.

It is these times of getting together as a group that can really help us, spiritually.  Our spirit can be strengthened.  Our faith can be strengthened.  Our knowledge about God can be strengthened.  And the same can be said of others, people we can help to strengthen.  This is a great blessing from God.  Jesus did not create the church for us so we could have some friends(although friendships with a group are essential), but rather so that we would have at our disposal a source of both information and encouragement that could aid us in our walk with Him.  It is a tremendous asset.  Let’s not overlook it.  Let’s not take it for granted or ignore it.  Instead, let’s make the most of it(for the benefit of ourselves) and allow it to make the most of us(for the benefit of others).