Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Matthew 12:30
During the pandemic, when we could not gather in church, we tended to scatter. We went in different directions, watching worship services online at home, heading out to parks and pathways to walk and sit and meditate on God’s Word, looking on the internet for devotions and prayers. But in many cases, we scattered even farther afield from our faith—going to the gym when we usually went to church, watching secular memes when we should have been watching spiritual videos, scanning the web for news about our favorite celebrities instead of looking for reports of Christians in action.
Since the return to “normalcy,” I have noticed that gathering together in our Christian communities has come back, but at a fairly slow rate. Why? Perhaps it is because we enjoyed being scattered and off by ourselves. Like sheep, we are prone to wonder.
But the truth that Jesus is trying to get across to us is that when we are not regularly with him and our Christian brothers and sisters, the tendency is to go against him in our thoughts, words and deeds. It may be slowly, it may be imperceptibly, but a turning away from Jesus occurs over time when we are scattered.
It is time, therefore, to make a concerted effort to gather more and more with the faithful—in church, in Bible study, in fellowship, getting to know each other more and getting to know Jesus more in the process.