Expert: Phillip Senn - 6/25/2006

Question
1)Do you have to attend church to be a christian?

2)Is it right to pretend to like someone if you dislike their ways (example:members who won't speak to you)

3)I feel I would like people more if I wasn't around them every Sunday and Wednesday.  

Answer
Mark,

Apparently you have had some type of run-in with some church members. There is no Scripture that says that you must attend church services to get to Heaven. Simple faith in the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is sufficient to be declared righteous in God's sight.

In order to be obedient to God's instructions though, you must not only be one that is "not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is", but you must also "love the brethren". Loving someone doesn't mean that you like the way they act. I love my son, but there are times that I am tempted to "take his head off". I love my wife, but she sometimes makes me so angry by the things she does. Love is a commitment of the heart towards another person based upon certain criteria. In the case of my son, he is my offspring, and I thus love him as my son. I love my wife differently from my son. I have a love for her that exceeds the fact that we are married. We have become one flesh.

We are also called to love the brethren. We do not love the brethren simply because we are members of the same church. We love the brethren because we have the same Father. John wrote, "We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

Sometimes we deal with people that do not necessarily have the same likes and dislikes as we do. We must be tolerant of them and seek to have fellowship with them anyway. Our fellowship with each other comes as a result of Christ's sacrifice for our sins. All that have experienced His forgiveness, can relate one to another.

Our fellowship (not our relationship) with the Father can be affected by our fellowship with fellow believers. I would pray that you would not let your fellowship be hindered with others and that you would seek ways of reaching out to those that "won't speak to you". Apparently you desire their fellowship. Make the effort to let them know.

If there has been something that may have caused this distancing, the responsibility is always on the believer to make reconcilliation. If you have been harmed by someone else, or if you harmed someone else, it is your responsibility to seek to reconcile. If you actually think it would make things better if you weren't around other believers, it might be a good time to seek the council of the Pastor. He might have helpful insights that could help the situation.

I hope this helps answer the questions you posed.

With Love In Christ,
Phillip Senn