Q.    Is it necessary to belong to your group?  What’s wrong with just worshiping Yahweh on my own?

A.    To answer that question, we must ask, did Yahshua the Messiah institute a body of believers united in Yahweh’s Name and known as the Assembly?  If He did, and He clearly said that He did, then we would surely want to be a part of how He intended worship to be conducted, would we not?
       Many think that having their own private religion is acceptable with Yahweh. They think that gathering with other believers occasionally is nice, but they can just as easily fulfill all that it means to be a True Worshiper independently, at home.
       To think that way is to misconstrue what it means to be a follower of Yahshua.
       Yahshua said in Matthew 16:18: “And I say also unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my assembly; and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it.”
       He specifically chose 12 disciples (“learners”) who became apostles (“to be sent”), Mark 3:14.  These men established assemblies of followers, which is why we have Paul’s letters to the various assemblies in the New Testament (these were organized bodies at Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica).  When a problem arose, an apostle would consult other apostles (Acts 15).  When they needed financial assistance, one assembly would help another (1Cor. 16:1). That is what the organized Body is all about.
       All of this shows the importance of a united effort.  Without an organized approach, Yahshua knew that His charge to fulfill the Great Commission would flounder.
       Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 12:12 that the body is one and has many members.  Later in verse 27 he writes that the converted are all members in the Body of Messiah—every one put there by Yahweh, verse 18.  In verse 28 he explains that the various offices such as apostle, prophet, and teacher are given to guide, promote, and feed the believers in an organized assembly of worshipers.
Paul emphasizes this in 1Corinthians 12:21 and 27: “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of you: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.  Now you are the body of Messiah, and members in particular.”
       Just as a hand can’t survive unattached to the rest of the body, so the membership in Yahshua’s Body must associate with and be a part of the whole. That is the lesson of 1Corinthians 12. Yahshua established it that way.

 
                 
         
     
                   
               
                         
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