I always find it breathtaking that the writer to the Hebrews urges his readers not to neglect the gathering of themselves together. "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Heb 10:24-25). The writer was urging the attendance of church services, especially in the face of overt persecution. The Letter to the Hebrews was written to galvanize a population of Jewish Christians that were about to face an overt persecution for the first time. They had been able to avoid a clash with government authorities by pleading that Judaism was legal in the Roman Empire, which it was. However, as the first century came to a close it became clear to government authorities that Christianity was not Judaism and therefore not protected by the legal status of the Jews. There was then some reason to return to the synagogue and its safety. This is precisely what the writer to the Hebrews was urging against.

Instead of returning to the Jewish gatherings, the writer pleads with them to continue their own gatherings, especially with the background of the Day that is drawing near. This is what I find remarkable. The gatherings themselves would have made his readers more susceptible to persecution and suffering. The community gathered would have been magnets for governmental intrusion (nothing new!). Of course, no one had an absolute right to assemble under Roman governance. And all the more, when you consider that Christianity was on its way to becoming an outlaw religion in the Roman Empire.

You can see why, then, some would have begun to rethink the value of church attendance! The writer to the Hebrews labels their defection as "the habit of some." The word that is translated "habit" is the Greek word "ethos," from which we get our word "ethic." It means that which is customary and habitual. The fact is that there are two kinds of customs; one is the habit of defection, the other the habit of faithful attendance. The pagans had their faithful habit; attendance to the things of this world. Easily enough we can slide back into that habit which worships at the altar of pleasure, ease, and entertainment (or you name it) with the pagans. If this has become our ethos, then the ethos of the church is dead. Ultimately, the ethos that is in competition with the ethos of the church is the ethos of Satan. There can be no middle ground. Ignatius of Antioch recognized this in his letter to the Ephesians in the first quarter of the second century of our era. There could be no backsliding.

Ignatius of Antioch