If company comes for the weekend, should we stay home with them instead of attending worship on Sunday?
I wouldn't consider this question if I hadn't heard people seriously give it as an excuse for not attending worship.
Perhaps no one has ever invited them to worship before. Your regular attendance makes the perfect occasion to bring up the subject. Christians are to do good as they have opportunity (Gal. 6:10). By God's mercy your guests have come to a Christian home, don't let them down.
They need to see where your priorities are. People respect dedication to a cause but they despise hypocrisy. Forsaking the assembly tells your guests that they take precedence over the faith for which Jesus died (Heb. 12:2).
You need to show God who is most important. The first and great commandment is to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matt. 22:37). On the other hand, if you love friends or family more than Christ, you cannot be his disciples (Luke 14:26).
They need your example. People will often follow others where they would not go by themselves. Show them what Christians do in the Lord's day. "Be thou an example of the believers" (1 Tim. 4:12).
You have a prior appointment with your brothers and sisters in Christ and with the Lord that takes precedence over your desire to please your company (Heb. 10:25; Matt. 18:20). If they come to worship with you, it may lead to their salvation. If they stay home, you may have another opportunity to honor God Sunday evening.
S. T. E.
"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
