Respond
The New Testament teaches that during meetings the church should: read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray according to the Bible, sing from the Bible, and see the Bible.
- Read the Bible. Paul instructed Timothy: «Devote yourself to public reading, to exhortation, to teaching.» (1 Tim. 4:13) God’s Word should be read aloud in church meetings.
- Preach the Bible. Paul wrote: «Preach the word.» (2 Tim. 4:2) The apostle himself declared «all the will of God» to the church in Ephesus. (Acts 20:27) So today, the focus of the meeting should be a sermon that conveys the main idea of a passage of Scripture, makes the Bible the basis of the sermon itself, and applies it to modern life.
- Pray according to the Bible. The apostle calls for prayers to be offered in the church assembly (1 Tim. 2:8; 3:14–15). Their content should be biblical, so as to encourage all present (1 Cor. 14:12, 26). This does not mean that church prayers should be dry and formal, but they should be filled with the truths of Scripture.
- Sing from the Bible. Paul exhorts the church in Colossae: «Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God» (Col. 3:16). This does not mean that the church should only sing psalms or take verses from the Bible literally, but the songs should be infused with biblical language and theology.
- See the Bible. We say «see the Bible» because baptism and the Lord’s Supper are, in Augustine’s words, «the visible Word.» In these institutions we see, feel, and taste the truths of the Gospel. Christian churches are to perform baptism and the Lord’s Supper in public worship (see 1 Cor. 11:17–34).
