Title: Not-So-Holy Hermits
Tags: self-seclusion assembling
Blog Entry: "He who separates himself seeks his own desire; he quarrels against all sound wisdom." [Proverbs 18:1, NASB] I am intrigued by the number of modern Christians who admit that they are not a part of a regularly assembling body of believers. Being unconnected to a congregation may sometimes be a short-term necessity, but the child of God must try never to isolate himself from Christian community. Seclusion is usually a flight from accountability to others. This can be spiritualized of course--with a fond looking back to the holy hermits of old--but it is really motivated by selfish desire. An interesting contrast between Prov. 18:1 and Hebrews 10:25 is that the latter exhorts fellowship for the purpose of stimulating one another to "love and good deeds," while the former says a repercussion of the not-so-holy hermitage is that the hermit "quarrels against all sound wisdom." Assemblers can be touched by exhortation, hermits often cannot. Assemblers can hold one another accountable to what they are learning in The Way, but hermits cannot. Assemblers can edify one another as iron sharpens iron, but hermits cannot. For these reasons and many others, believers have always gathered together for fellowship and communal worship since the earliest days of the Church. If it is within the believer's ability he should by all means assemble with other believers. - Berean Joe
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