Another quote from my sermon notes from 1 Peter that didn’t make it into the sermon, but which is nevertheless helpful and worth considering:
“So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 18
One of the main points in the message is that believers are able, in this life, to experience a foretaste of the eternal blessing that will be our inheritance in Christ, and that, apart from personal fellowship with Him, the primary means of experiencing that blessing is through giving ourselves to participation in our local church. I think Bonhoeffer understood that well.