Every Christian knows it is both our duty and our delight to gather with God’s people on each Lord’s Day. But we may have less clarity on why we do this. Why is it so important that we gather specifically to worship?
The answer goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and to mankind’s catastrophic fall into sin. When we turned away from God, we turned in toward ourselves. The natural inclination of our hearts was no longer outward to God, but inward toward ourselves (2 Timothy 3:2). Our deepest loyalty, and therefore our most heartfelt worship, was directed to ourselves rather than to our Creator.
But then God saved us, and in saving us he restored our desire and our ability to put him first in our hearts, in our lives, and in our worship. Now every week we gather together with our Christian brothers and sisters to remind ourselves and one another that it’s not about us! As we begin a new week, we proclaim that we’ve been born again into a whole new life, a whole new kind of life, that is oriented toward bringing glory to God. Paul Tripp says, “Corporate worship is a regular gracious reminder that it’s not about you. You’ve been born into a life that is a celebration of another.” And that is very good news.
