WHO NEEDS IT ANYWAY?
Many believers have adopted such an attitude for various reasons, and offer numerous excuses of why they don’t or won’t fellowship with other believers. Perhaps a biblical definition would help curve that attitude into something of authentic value. As with many things, a broader or better understanding often results in a new perspective.
God has provided and revealed His direct thoughts through the Bible, but as time passes, some of His concepts have grown obscure in our culture and become ambiguous. We somehow manage to morph His intentions into our own comfortable practices, often discounting the true intent and purpose of His Word/Truth. The biblical concept of fellowship among Christians/Believers is one that has been especially confused within the framework of Christ’s Church!
Today, churches have fellowship halls, fellowship dinners, home fellowships and various fellowship groups, etc, etc. However, very few have actual fellowship … and yet for a Body of Christ (church) that seeks to be guided and directed in principle and practice by the New Testament, fellowship is absolutely essential. The well-being and spiritual development of the entire body/church, as well as that of every individual participant, is directly impacted by the type and quality of fellowship one experiences in their church.
So, what is fellowship as purposed/intended by the Lord? As one looks back into church history and digs into the original languages of the Bible, there are several significant facts that illuminate God’s projected meaning/intent for fellowship among His faithful.
The first fact concerns the meaning of the Greek root word “koinos.” This term is a prefix in ancient Greek from which our English word, “fellowship” or “koinonia” is derived. If you were to add this prefix to various words like “living,” “owning a purse,” “a dispute,” or “mother,” you would get words meaning “living in community together,” “owning a purse in common,” “a public dispute,” and “having a mother in common.” The root of the word “fellowship” means “to hold something in common.”
The Greek word “koinonia” would be commonly used to describe corporations, labor guilds, partners in a law firm, and the most intimate of marriage relationships. Therefore, from the usage of the word, we can conclude that fellowship is a word denoting a relationship that is dependent on more than one individual . . . an interdependent relationship.
I Corinthians 1:9 states:
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Note this – the word “fellowship” is never used in the biblical text concerning a relationship between humanity and deity until after God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers, making it an exclusive post-Pentecost experience/connection/affiliation! Initially, fellowship focused in on spiritual unity, a personal relationship as emphasized in Philemon 6, II Corinthians 13:14 and Philippians 2:1.
Nobody had to come to the disciples and other new believers on the day of Pentecost and say, “Now you need to go practice fellowship.” God’s Holy Spirit had come upon all these people and uniquely formed a bond of unity! Their inclination (not natural, but supernatural through God’s Spirit), thanks to their new nature in Christ Jesus, was to exercise it outwardly. Acts 2:41-47 speaks clearly:
So then, those who had received his (Peter’s teaching) word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
This is fellowship, not as a concept or idea, but as an action in the midst of His church! If one was to remove themselves from these activities, they would no longer be experiencing fellowship with other believers. Fellowship was unquestionably a hallmark of Christ’s early church, yet today it’s been sadly reduced to annual potluck dinners despite the admonition of Scripture. I John 1:6-7 presents genuine fellowship as the obvious by-product of an authentic personal relationship with Jesus Christ:
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Let’s rediscover the truth and value of Fellowship –PF