My dear brother Mike,
I appreciated your call so much the other day. Just hearing your cheerful voice and knowing that you care enough to want to take some time out of your busy day to talk with me, really speaks volumes about your character. God bless you for that!
I was doing a study on II Thessalonians, when I felt led to compare this phrase, in Chapter 2, verse 1...:
".......our gathering together unto him....."
...with Matthew 24:31:
"And they
(the angels) shall gather together his elect......"
...and also Hebrews 10:25:
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.......
I noticed that the words gather, gathering, and assembling are all the same Greek word, Strongs' #1997 (episunagoge), and is from #1996 (episunago) .....(To collect upon the same place).
And "episunago" is taken from #4863 (sunago), which is taken from #4862 (sun), the prim. prep. denoting union, with or together.
I also observed that there are a lot of applications that are taken from #4862 (sun). Some of them are repetitious, but here is a short list showing the various ways that assembling and gathering are defined and described:
FROM #4862 (SUN):
4773 A relative (by blood). A fellow countryman
4775 To seat oneself in company with
4777 To suffer hardship in company with
4783 To be in accord with, agreement with
4788 To embrace in a common subjection to
4790 To heir together with
4796 To rejoice with
4801 To yoke together
4802 To reason together
4806 To quicken together with
4814 To commune with, talk with
4818 To sorrow on account of someone
4819 To walk together, concur
4822 To be knit together
4823 To take counsel together
4827 A fellow disciple, a co-learner
4828 To testify jointly
4831 A co-imitator, a follower together
4832 Jointly formed, fashioned like unto
4836 To stand with
4837 To console jointly, to comfort together
4839 To continue with
4841 To suffer with
4845 To accomplish, to fill up
4851 To bear together, to be profitable for
4852 To say jointly, to consent unto
4854 Planted together
4855 To spring up with
4856 To agree with
4862 Union (with or together) Completeness
4865 To struggle in company with
4866 To labor with, to strive together for
4869 Fellowprisoner
4873 To sit at meat together
4874 To associate with
4875 To refresh with
4880 To be dead with, to die with
4881 To be slain in company with
4883 To be fitly framed (joined) together
4885 To increase (grow up) together
4886 A joint tie (ligament)
4890 To run together
4891 To revivify in resemblence to, to raise up together
4894 To see (understand) completely
4897 To go in with
4899 Chosen in company with, elected together with
4904 Labourer together with
4911 To resist jointly, to rise up together
4924 To dwell together
4925 To build together
4931 To finish, to fulfil, to make, to complete entirely
4933 To keep closely together
4937 To be broken to shivers
4938 Complete ruin, destruction
4943 To help together
4944 To travail in pain together
4954 Of the same body
4957 To be crucified with
4959 To experience a common calamity, to groan together
4960 To file together (as soldiers in ranks)
4961 Fellowsoldier
4964 To conform to the same pattern
If I'm understanding all of this correctly, then the gathering or the assembling, as described above, is a process that goes on over a long period of time, and not some literal, physical event that takes place at some geographical location, at a pre-arranged time.
This has less to do with a physical meeting, and more to do with our collective state of mind.
Throughout my entire life, whenever the Hebrews 10:25 verse was mentioned during sermons, it was always explained as meaning the people who neglected their church attendance or other types of christian fellowship meetings.
In letters alone, that would certainly apply. Without question, our times of fellowship, when people are drawn from all over this country to meet in a physical building, are wonderful indeed.
When the Christ of Christ comes together physically for fellowship, there is nothing like it!!
But when compared to the totality of our christian experience and our time here on earth, those events are very short-lived and far between.
And then, we go back to our individual homes, where we often feel isolated, lonely and rejected.
Unless, of course, one should be so fortunate as to be in close proximity with a believing brother or sister who lives in the same house, the same town, or a nearby town.
But in the spirit behind those letters, it seems to be saying something much deeper.
Mike, what I'm seeing here is the body of Christ being developed, unified and completed, over time.
As we, the chosen, are being gathered and assembled, we all partake of the same process of scourging and chastening and experience the same things (listed above) as we learn to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
But before we can go through this gathering and assembling process, we must first (II Thess. 2:3) fall away, and then that man of sin that is inside of us must be revealed, consumed and destroyed.
Thanks to our God-given, modern day communication technology, you are now able, with your web page, to easily reach out to the few who are scattered all over the map, bringing us all together in unity of mind and purpose, and:
"......so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Heb. 10:25)
If I'm not seeing this right, please set me straight. Maybe the next time you call me we can discuss it, at your convenience.
Thank you for being my faithful friend and fellow soldier in Christ!
R____
This is really good,
That list of meanings of that word is so incredibly revealing. We are "together" in every imaginable way in spirit.
I thank you for your appreciation for what God is doing through
iswasandwillbe.com.
Mike
