The First Symptom Of Spiritual Decline

"Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor."
(1 Peter 2:17 NIV)

I’ve mentioned before that the Church is a Body, not a building, and an organism, not an organization.  For the organs of our body to fulfill their purpose, they must be connected to our body. The same is true for Us as a part of Christ’s Body. We were created for a specific role, but we will miss out on it if we’re not attached to a living, local church. We discover our role in life though our relationships with others.  The Bible tells us, “Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we?” (see Romans 12:4-5 ; 1 Corinthians 12:12)  If an organ is somehow severed from its body, it will shrivel and die. It cannot exist on its own, and neither can we. Disconnected and cut off from the lifeblood of a local Body of believers, our spiritual life will wither and eventually cease to exist (see Ephesians 4:16). This is why the first symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent attendance at worship services and other gatherings of believers. Whenever we become careless about fellowship, everything else begins to slide, too.  The Bible says, “Love your spiritual family” (1 Peter 2:17 ).  Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential nor something to be casually ignored. The Church is God’s agenda for the world. Jesus said,

“I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18 NLT).