Someone inquired whether a person can worship alone. The New Testament describes five activities of Christian worship, in no particular order: prayer, singing hymns, communion, contributions and preaching. If any one of the acts of Christian worship may occur when a child of God is alone, according to Scripture, then any or all of the acts of worship may occur with God’s approval when a soul is alone. That does not mean, though, that all of the acts of Christian worship can occur on any day or days. While some of our brethren have reasoned that a contribution can only occur on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:1–2), that is an overstatement. Any act of worship that Scripture addresses, which is not specifically noted to be only on the first day of the week, can be observed on days additional to the first day of the week. It is not certain that the collections recorded in Acts 4:34–5:11 were on the first day of the week. In addition to the first day of the week, money often comes to a local congregation through the mail any day mail is delivered, electronically any time of day any day of the week, upon the settlement of donated estates, etc. None of those or similar circumstances negate the first day of the week contribution but may be in addition to it. Only partaking of the “communion” (1 Corinthians 10:16) or “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20) is specifically recorded in Scripture to occur on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), and without other passages suggesting the possibility of the Supper being observed on additional days of the week, too. There are no other Scriptures that state or even hint that Christians observed the communion on a day other than the first day of the week. Therefore, the communion or the Lord’s Supper is understood to be exclusively a first day of the week observance.
Regarding other activities of Christian worship, consider prayer, for instance. At the beginning of the church, prayer was engaged by multiple Christians together. Acts 2:42 mentions four of the five acts of worship. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine [teaching or preaching] and fellowship [contribution], in the breaking of bread [communion], and in prayers” (NKJV). However, the apostles instructed Christians to pray individual prayers, too (Acts 8:22; James 5:13), and the apostle Paul engaged in his own prayers (Philippians 1:4; Philemon 4). Hence, prayer may occur with others present, or prayer may be the act of individual Christians. With the exception of “the communion” or “the Lord’s Supper,” which we already noted above, prayer—an act of Christian worship—can occur with God’s approval, along with any of the remaining four acts of Christian worship, when either one is alone or when a child of God is among fellow Christians. Likewise, either one alone (1 Corinthians 14:15; James 5:13) or among others (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), Christians can sing hymns on any day of the week; Scripture does not restrict singing hymns only to the first day of the week. Preaching or teaching may occur on days in addition to the first day of the week (Acts 13:13–41; 16:13–15), and a person may be his own teacher (2 Timothy 2:15), or he may hear another who teaches or preaches (Acts 20:7).
A child of God is neither excused from worshipping God because he is not joined by others, and nor is he excused from worshipping with other Christians who assemble to worship God. Hebrews 10:25 calls upon Christians to assemble together to worship, certainly the purpose for first day of the week assemblies (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1–2), though there may be additional appointed occasions to assemble (e.g., a visiting preacher—like the apostle Paul in the first century; Gospel meeting, lectureships, seminars, workshops, etc.). First Corinthians 14 depicts a first century worship assembly; the chief difference between that assembly and our assemblies is that we have the completed New Testament in lieu of the miraculous reception of divine revelation and interpretation of it for a mixed language group. Be vigilant to worship God daily in at least prayers and Bible study; be certain to worship God in spirit and in Truth (John 4:23–24) through the five acts of worship each Lord’s Day—ideally alongside other Christians but by oneself if necessary.
