God Whom he hath not seen?" (I John 4: 20). The special "provoking" here is to "love

and to good works". The word "good" here is not agathos, but kalos as in Heb. 5: 14;

6: 5.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. The

usual interpretation of this passage associates it with attendance at a Christian place of

worship. The word "assembling" (episunagoge), and its cognate (episunago), are never

used of an "assembling" in the sense of attending service at church. Episunago is used in

Matt. 23: 37 and its parallel passage for the Lord's desire to gather the children of

Jerusalem to Himself as a hen does her chickens. It is used in Matt. 24: 31 and its

parallel passage of the gathering together of the elect by the angels. It is used in

Mark 1: 33 and Luke 12: 1, for the crowd who gathered for healing or interest. The

only other place where episunagoge occurs is II Thess. 2: 1, "The coming of our Lord

Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him". The apostle by the use of the word

"forsaking" evidently glances back to such passages as II Chron. 24: 18, where the

"forsaking" of the house of the Lord meant apostasy, and was visited with wrath, and

also to Neh. 10: 39 and 13: 11, where adherence to the house of God indicated loyalty.

The "gathering together of ourselves" has value only as it foreshadows the hope of "our

gathering together unto Him". At the present time faithfulness to truth and to the blessed

hope sometimes cuts us off from Christian assemblies, and this passage must never be

used to justify compromise. The present dispensation knows no "place of worship"

except where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, for God dwelleth not in temples

made with hands. Churches and chapels are conveniences, not essentials.

The added words, "so much the more, as ye see the day approaching", confirms the

thought that the hope and its gathering together is all the while in view. As we see the

day approaching we must confess that it has often cut us off from assembling with the

Lord's people, simply because corporate testimony has gone the way of all the earth.

A further confirmation of this higher and fuller meaning is found in the argument that

immediately follows. The forsaking of the assembly is called a "willful sin after the

reception of the truth", and for such "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins". Under

the law sins were placed under two heads:

Apostasy from the profession of the hope had the character of presumptuous sin, for

which the law made no provision. That David (as in Psa. 51:), for example, could be

forgiven, shows that a fuller Sacrifice is found under the gospel than under the law, but

the apostle does not bring this forward, neither does he mitigate the severity of the

judgment that is pronounced against such. "Fiery indignation, which shall devour the

adversaries", "died without mercy", "of how much sorer punishment", "vengeance is

Mine", "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God", all stress the extreme

severity of the penalty. "Trodden under foot the Son of God", "counting the blood of the