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Do I need a covering?

 Submitted: 1/11/2014
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Question: Do you think you need a covering? I think God is my covering and the church is you, not the building you go to for service. I have heard so many people saying I need to belong to a church and have covering.
Answer: We are not sure what these people you speak of mean by covering. We do, however, believe that every born again believer needs to be connected to a local assembly. The Bible knows nothing of solo Christianity where believers live out their faith apart from the body of Christ. Several verses that emphasize the importance of body life are:

'For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another' (Romans 12:4-5).

'For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many' (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

'I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit...' (Ephesians 4:1-4).

These passages would have no meaning at all if all believers lived independent lives, apart from a local body of believers.


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