NOT NEGLECTING TO MEET TOGETHER: THE ABUSE OF HEBREWS 10:25

..not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25).

This post addresses the difficulty many believers experience in finding a sound church in these perilous times and the habit of false teachers to trot out Hebrews 10:25 out of context.  

In context verse 19 begins "Therefore brothers.. which is a continuation of the previous section which describes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in contrast to the Mosaic Law. (2 Timothy 2:15).

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (hebrews 10:19-25).

It is interesting that Arthur W Pink made the distinction that "not neglecting/forsaking" refers to the total abandonment of the Christian faith. The apostasy and severe deviations from the faith within the New Apostolic Reformation and other deviant groups more than justifies any true believer separating from such. Although I am not a Calvinist and I do not agree with Pink in many respects, his exposition of this passage may be helpful for those who have been made to feel guilty because they find it impossible to fellowship with professing Christians who follow false teachers..  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5).

AW Pink: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." John Owen rightly pointed out that, "There is a synecdoche (a part put for the whole) in the word ‘assembling,’ and it is put for the whole worship of Christ, because worship was performed in their assemblies; and he that forsakes the assemblies, forsakes the worship of Christ, as some of them did when exposed to danger." What is here dehorted is the total relinquishment of Christianity. It is not "Cease not to attend the assembly," but "forsake not," abandon not the assembling of yourselves together. It is not the sin of sloth or of schism which is here considered, but that of apostasy. If a professing Christian forsook the Christian churches and became a Mohammedan he would disobey this verse; but for one who puts the honor of Christ before everything else, to turn his back upon the so-called churches where He is now so grievously dishonored, is not a failure to comply with its terms.  

The Greek word for 'Forsake not' is a very strong and emphatic one, being a double compound, and signifies 'to abandon in time of danger.' It is the word used by the agonizing Redeemer on the Cross, when He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was used by Him again when He declared, "Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption" (Acts 2:27 ). It is the word employed by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:10 , 'Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.' It is found in only one other place in this epistle, where it is in obvious antithesis from the verse now before us: 'He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee' (Hebrews 13:5 ). Thus it will appear that a total and final abandonment of the public profession of Christianity is what is here warned against.

One may therefore discern how that verse 25 supplies a most appropriate link between verses 23, 24 and verse 26. Verse 25 prescribes another means to enable the wavering Hebrews to remain constant in the Christian faith. If they were to 'hold fast the confession of faith without wavering,' and if they were to 'consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,' then they must not 'forsake the assembling' of themselves together. The word for 'assembling together' is a double compound, and occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 : 'our gathering together unto Him,' that is unto Christ; this also shows that the 'assembling together' here is under one Head, and that the 'forsaking' is because He has been turned away from.

To enforce the above caution, the apostle adds, 'as the manner of some is.' The Greek word for 'manner' signifies 'custom,' and is so translated in Luke 2:42 . This supplies additional confirmation that the evil against which the Hebrews were dehorted was no mere occasionally absenting themselves from the Christian churches, but a deliberate, fixed and final departure from them. In John 6:66 we read that 'From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him'; John also wrote of those who 'went out from us, but they were not of us' (1 John 2:19 ); whilst at the close of his labors Paul had to say 'All they which are in Asia be turned away from me' (2 Timothy 1:15 ). So here, some who had made a profession of the Christian faith had now abandoned the same and gone back to Judaism. It was to warn the others against this fatal step that the apostle now wrote as he did compare 1 Corinthians 10:12 , Romans 11:20."

1. Hebrews 10 - Pink's Commentary on John and Hebrews - Bible Commentaries - StudyLight.org