God Is Not So Careless and Easy as We Are about Church Attendance and Membership

Hebrews 10:29–31

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has TRAMPLED THE SON OF GOD UNDERFOOT, COUNTED THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT BY WHICH HE WAS CONSECRATED A COMMON THING, AND INSULTED THE SPIRIT OF GRACE? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It seems that the "willful sin" by which v26 says that we do this trampling and despising and insulting is directly connected to the injunctions to hold fast to the confession of our hope, and to stir one another up, NOT FORSAKING THE ASSEMBLY, in v23–25:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

We ought to consider that, like many other things in Scripture, God takes far more seriously than we have realized our missing church, and discarding the covenantal obligations of our membership.

It's actually rather sobering to read and think about this in light of how our generation of professing Christians in our land misses worship or flakes out on our membership with such carelessness and ease.

What if covid was a judgment upon our already doing this, and not just a means by which we have come to do it in a newly intensified way? What if the economy "recovers," but the churches never really do? Here's the entire section from v23–34 for your consideration:

²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

²⁶ For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³² But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: ³³ partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; ³⁴ for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.