The Togethers  as Critical Worship
What We Do for One Another Is Important Worship
by Dick Wulf

Worship has been defined both as bowing down before God and reflecting back to God his own character.  Deeper Christian community marked by costly interactive love obeyed meets both criteria.  Our Togethers of Scripture define the specific aspects of dynamic Christian love between believers.

Bowing down before God individually or in a church worship service is just the beginning of bowing down before God – it must be followed by living His way.  That means more than lip service to biblical relationships among God’s people.  Therefore, each of the 65 Togethers of Scripture, or “Togethers” for short, is bowing down by giving God his way.

Reflecting back to God his own glorious character can be started by singing praise songs and hymns, but must be followed by reflecting His character in our lives.  Each of the 65 Togethers of Scripture reflects back to God his character in even more meaningful ways than singing songs.  When you read the definitions of each of the Togethers, derived from the Scriptures listed, it is explained how that Together is really worship.

Worship at its core is not merely a ceremony in which we read God’s word, listen to a sermon and do a little singing. It is ascribing worth to Him and reflecting back to God His own character and nature in how we live.  And, so many of God’s qualities, like “forgiving”, can only be reflected to him in relationships.

Thus, it is a disaster that few realize that deeper Christian community is actually critical worship.  It is not just a good idea, but a “must do”.

In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul exhorts us to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship.” Our worship may begin with thoughts and words, but it is our actions that confirm those worshipful prayers and testimonies. Our lives are to be worship, reflecting to God His nature by our obedience to His commands that flow forth from His very nature.

This means, by necessity, that we worship God by how we relate to one another. God’s commands for Christians whenever and wherever they are together, presented through our list of The Togethers, have to do with relationships, and go beyond private piety. Our Western, individualistic culture can blind us to the biblically obvious fact that God most delights in the corporate worship of His people. That is, worship by word and deed. If the lives of His people together do not demonstrate obedience to His desires, if their behavior together is not in line with His nature, then He will not listen to their verbal worship. 

The prophet Amos clearly stated to the disobedient people of Israel, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.... Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps” (Amos 5).

Therefore, it is Christian interactive community that gives us the most important opportunity to reflect to God His own character — as a people — as His people! Each of the 65 “Togethers” is an act of corporate worship, because each reflects in some specific way God’s own nature back to Him.

Obedience to those things God commands Christians to do when they are together is our expression of love for Him. Jesus himself said, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). Mere talk without obedience is not love.

Christian community is one of the primary ways we worship God on earth. We will do so even more in heaven. The kingdom of God has its earthly expression and its heavenly expression. Now is the time to obey The Togethers as practice for the eternal community we will join at death. 

Add another consideration. Christian community is the vehicle through which the early church grew by leaps and bounds, taking over the world in the first four centuries. Christian community is the most powerful witness, the most powerful church growth tool. Jesus himself said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Now, add a clincher. Christian community is the kingdom. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 ). The New International Version footnote says that the last phrase could just as easily be “because the kingdom of God is among you.” Christian interrelationships are the Kingdom.

Think about this carefully: A kingdom is not the territory but the people, the society that inhabits the territory. A king who owns a lot of empty land without people would not have a kingdom, but only territory. Christians living in community with God and one another are the kingdom of heaven on earth. Presently, the kingdom of God in heaven includes the Lord, His angels and the saints who have preceded us. Eventually, we will be in the heavenly rather than the earthly expression of the kingdom of God.

So, Christian community gives us the opportunity to love God much more, worship Him much more, grow spiritually much more into the image of Jesus Christ, exhibit a powerful witness to Christ, grow the church and enjoy living right now in the kingdom of heaven. 

But let me awaken you to an urgency regarding earthly Christian community. 

SOME OF THE TOGETHERS ARE NOT ETERNAL!

When we accepted Christ as our Savior we became a part of the church and entered into the kingdom of God or, as it is also called, the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom, this society, has two expressions, here on earth and there in heaven. And while the kingdom of God on earth is in many significant ways preparation for the kingdom of God in heaven, there are some commands from God that are for this life only. The opportunity, the great privilege to worship God through these temporal “Togethers,” is limited to this earthly life. Now is the only time we will be able to worship God in these ways. But because of the lack of true community in the churches many of us participate in, many will never worship God deeply through most of “The Togethers.” 

Consider that a very special event is coming to town, and it is the only chance you will have to participate. It will never come again. That event could be an evangelistic crusade, or a special movie right down the alley of your interests, or a championship athletic event that might never again occur, or a visit from your great grandmother who will most likely die before you can ever see her again. You would not want to miss it! You and I would do all we could to rearrange our schedules so as to be able to take part.

When we look at the Togethers of Scripture, we find that some of them can offer us the opportunity to worship and praise God in those specific ways only on this side of heaven. All those wonderful opportunities to reflect to God His graciousness toward sinners will disappear when we go to heaven, since there will be no sinners there. 

This is the only time we will get to honor and glorify God through those Togethers related to man’s sinfulness.  Of the 65 Togethers, it appears that 30 will be completely lost when we die. We will never get another chance to reflect back to God in our behavior His loving nature and character with regard to sinfulness. There will be no more opportunity to hurt with one another and imitate our Lord’s crying over Lazarus. We will never again be able to battle temptation together and reflect God’s standing with us in our weakness. We will never again be able to live as Christians in a non-believing society and show love to the lost in the fashion that God provides rain to the just and the unjust. And we will never again be able to proclaim the Gospel to unredeemed men and women.

The privilege of bearing one another’s burdens will also soon be gone. And this will be a big loss, since bearing one another’s burdens is the closest we can come to imitating our Lord Jesus’ paying the penalty for the sins of believers. The privilege of bearing one another’s burdens is actually the privilege of paying the consequences for other people’s sins. It is the way that we worship the Lord with our behavior and so reflect to Him His own goodness in taking the penalty for our sins. How sad to miss this opportunity to praise God in this specific way of helping to pay the consequences of another’s sin.

Furthermore, another 27 Togethers are not limited to but have significant applications to the sinfulness in mankind. We will never again have the opportunity to hold to the truth together in the face of challenge, as did Jesus in the wilderness when He was challenged by Satan. We will still hold to the truth together in heaven, just not in the face of dispute. In heaven we will most likely still administer God’s grace to one another, just not to sinning men and women. And while in heaven we will live in unity, it will be much, much easier and not reflect the same qualities of God as we now have opportunity to do. 

If 57 of the 65 Togethers have specific earthly opportunities to worship, now is the time to do these things — especially those 30 that completely disappear at death. 

The primary reason to know and be able to automatically remember the 65 Togethers is to capture precious opportunities to worship God through true Christian community — meaning significant interactive love, not merely being in a room together at the church. It is how we help bring an answer to our prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

But there is a second powerful argument for deeper Christian community. And that is obedience. Scripture explicitly teaches community. The Word of God clearly tells us that God desires a corporate expression of faith in community. There was a reason Moses had to hold up his arms with the help of others for the Israelites to win the battle at Rephidim. There was a reason Aaron did not get to go into the promised land even though his sin of not making sure that Moses acted obediently is only implied in Numbers 20. There is a reason why 36 Israelites died when Achan secretly stole Jericho’s plunder.

And, although we usually miss the communal emphasis in Scripture, it is everywhere. We are to wait and hope on the Lord together (as eagles together, not as a single eagle; confer Isaiah 40:31). Loving community is to be our primary witness – that’s how Jesus said people would know we are truly His disciples (John 13:35). It is the church, and the individual only by inclusion in the church, that is being completed according to Philippians 1:6.

And the most powerful opportunities for biblical community, because of depth of relationship and frequency of contact, come in the form of friendships, marriages and families.

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If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team.  This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through.  If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at [email protected] and let him know of your willingness to help. 
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Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA