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 [The following is excerpted from the book, Gather: Getting to the Heart of Going to Church, Copyright © 2021 by M. Hopson Boutot. Click here to download the entire book for free.]   

 In chapter 2 we discussed the “one another” commands in detail. We said that the longer a member is absent from the life of his or her local church, the harder it will be to obey these commands. It’s harder to bear burdens if you’re not present to hear what those burdens are. It’s harder to serve one another if you don’t see one another. But let’s consider one of the commands that we haven’t mentioned: the command to sing.[2]

Ephesians 5:18-19—And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

Colossians 3:16—Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

We’ll tackle the recent phenomenon of online church in greater detail in chapter 7, but for now just consider the impossibility of obeying this command apart from the physical gathering. In both passages, we are given more than a mere command to sing. Certainly that could be achieved remotely. But Paul is asking us to do far more than merely sing.

Look carefully. The command is to address, teach, and admonish one another through our singing. In other words, God intends our congregational singing to be directed not only to Him but to one another. Yes, there is a sense in which we sing for an audience of One. But we also should sing for and to one another. Not to impress each other, but to encourage each other. As Matt Merker writes, “When you join a church, you join the choir.”[3] And you can’t sing with the choir unless you’re present. necessary. And without faithfully gathering with God’s people, you cannot use those gifts as God intends.  

[2] This command is also not included in the Appendix since both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 use a different Greek word for “one another.” That said, it deserves inclusion here as a very clear one another command intended to be lived out in the context of the local church.

[3] Matt Merker, Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 136.