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Answer:

While there is something to be said about individual growth in the Christian life by the Holy Spirit, a Christian who is not part of a local church will miss out on God teaching Him through the church and through individuals in the church. He will also lack the opportunity to put much of what he has learnt about Christianity into practice. If this lack of participation in a community of believers is wilful, it is actually disobeying God.

When we come to Christ, we are called not only to love God, but to love other Christians (John 13:34-35). In Acts 20:7, we read that on the first day of the week, the disciples gathered together to break bread, and the word of God would be preached. In 1 Cor 12:18-21, we are reminded that we as the believers, need one another. Each believer has a different role to play in church. “The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” Since this is the case, a Christian cannot insist that it is alright for him to be alone without the support of other Christians for an extended period of time.

To read more on how various aspects of Christian living can only be lived out when a believer is in the midst of a local body of believers, refer to these related questions:

- Why do we have to go to church? What is the purpose behind this?