The term ‘fellowship’ is used by us in a
variety of ways, and this factor can either indicate the richness of its
meaning or the confusion that is connected to it. A brief survey of some
biblical passages will reveal four basic features.
We
have fellowship with each person of the Trinity: ‘God is faithful, by whom you were called into the
fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:9); ‘The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all’ (2 Cor. 13:14). This fellowship can be experienced by us as
individuals during our times of private worship; it can also be known by us any
time throughout the day or night. We can have fellowship with the persons of
the Godhead when we are walking along the road, driving the car or digging in a
field. And this fellowship can be enjoyed corporately as well. Congregations
are composed of people who have come together to meet with God, and each person
of the Trinity should be in our thoughts. In church, we can ask each person of
the Trinity to meet with us in a specific way.
We
cannot have fellowship with God and engage in wrong practices: ‘Rather, that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not
want you to have fellowship with demons’ (1 Cor. 10:20); ‘And have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in
secret’ (Eph. 5:11-12).
We cannot have fellowship with God unless
we confess our sins: ‘If we
say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from
all sin’ (1 John 1:6-7).
Christian fellowship involves
participation in the spread of the gospel: ‘when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to
be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand
of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to
the circumcised’ (Gal. 2:9); ‘because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now’ (Phil. 1:5).
In Acts 2:44ff, Luke describes the fellowship
that marked the early church in Jerusalem immediately after the Day of
Pentecost. It was obviously a striking feature of its life. In verse 42, he
says it was one of the activities to which these early Christians devoted
themselves; in verse 44 he summarises the fellowship and in verses 45 to 47 he
specifies particular features of it.
In his summary Luke says that the believers
were together and had all things in common. These two details point to the
meaning of Christian fellowship – there has to be a relationship (the believers
were together) and there has to be sharing (had all things in common). There
cannot be fellowship without these aspects.
With regard to the relationship, two essential
details should be mentioned. First, they had this relationship because each of
them had faith in Jesus Christ. On the Day of Pentecost, each one of them had
trusted in him as their Saviour from sin. We are not told anything about their
life apart from this – they had discovered that Jesus Christ had come into the
world to save sinners. On being informed of the willingness of Jesus to save
them, these thousands of sinners had embraced him from their hearts. They were
now believers in Jesus Christ.
Second, they had become members of the family
of God. Prior to their conversions on the Day of Pentecost, they had a
relationship with one another as Jews, a relationship that was both religious
and racial. This relationship had separated them from all others in the world.
On the Day of Pentecost, they discovered that they were brothers in a far
higher sense – they now belonged to the family of God. Despite their sinful
pasts, they had not only been forgiven; in addition, they had been adopted into
God’s own family. He was now their Father and his people were now their
brothers and sisters.
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