With COVID restrictions and the rise of virtual church services keeping many Christians from gathering with other believers, it seems now is an excellent time to evaluate our hearts to see if sin and isolation have had any impact on us. If you have not been gathering with other believers, has time away from the brethren left you spiritually lifeless to where you no longer desire to go back? Or worse, have you fallen into sin and are afraid to return because you do not want your sinfulness to come to light?
Whether you think the church COVID lockdowns were justified or not, one thing is for sure; Satan loves that our fellowship with other believers has been hindered. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic work, Life Together, we find this heart-stopping line.
“Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.”
This point is in the middle of a larger context about confessing our sins to one another, which is part of fellowshipping together, but this minor point is worth considering by itself. Make no mistake about it, the power of sin in our lives, our sinful desires, gather up their strength when brothers and sisters in Christ do not gather in fellowship for singing, preaching of the word, and prayer.
The power of sin in isolation from other believers can manifest itself in two ways. First, if you find yourself without a local gathering of believers, it becomes easier to make little compromises, and those little compromises then quickly grow into more significant compromises. George Swinnock put it this way. “Satan watches for those vessels that sail without a convoy.” Second, if you are part of a local Christian fellowship, and you begin to play with sin, that sin will then start its work to separate you from the community of believers.
