Fellowship - Brad Anderson

 

While the Westminster Shorter Catechism explains that the means of grace are all of God’s ordinances “especially the word, sacraments and prayer,” there are other channels by which Godgives spiritual power to his followers to know and grow in him and carry out the purposes of the church. One of those other channels is fellowship.

Often, we can think of fellowship as social gatherings and friendships centered on a common purpose. One can have fellowship with co-workers and neighbors, but the New Testament intends for Christian fellowship to mean something much more than a social exercise. From the beginning of the church in the book of Acts, it is easy to see the fellowship of believers was something only the grace of Jesus could create (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35). J. I. Packer helps to explain how fellowship is a means of grace:

It is only where the Holy Spirit has been given, where men are spiritually alive and anxious to grow in grace themselves and help others to do the same, that fellowship becomes a possibility; and it is only as the Holy Spirit enables us to speak to others, and others to us, in such a way that Christ and the Father are made known through what is said, that fellowship is made a reality. When we seek to enjoy fellowship together, we should do so in prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, whose office it is to reveal Christ to us; otherwise, our talk with each other will be empty and profitless, and the goal of fellowship- fuller acquaintance with our common Lord- will not be achieved.

 

Fellowship is holy commonness. Koinonia is the New Testament word for fellowship which simply means “common.” In a general sense, common means something as simple as a shared cultural characteristic or even a standard unit of measure. We can see that the early church “had everything in common.” They shared many things together: property, hearts, hopes, joys, and frustrations. Beyond physical and emotional ties, they shared their spiritual union with Jesus Christ. As John Frame says, “Koinonia in the NT also refers to a religious sharing, a religious commonness. To have fellowship is to worship together. Together with God, with Jesus, and with other believers in the Lord . . . fellowship is a heartfelt sense of brotherhood, of closeness, of belonging to one family in the Lord (Phil. 2:1).”

For the followers of Christ, true fellowship comes from our union with him and then spreads to the community of the church. Thus there is a horizontal and vertical component in understanding fellowship. As our hearts are changed in loving fellowship with Christ, we grow in loving fellowship with one another. Both dimensions are well explained in the Westminster Confession of Faith, 

All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head by his Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory. And being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces; and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.

 

Beattie summarizes, “The basis of the communion which saints or believers enjoy is their mystical union with Christ in their effectual calling. They are thus united with Christ their head, by the Holy Spirit on the divine side, and by their own faith on their part.” It is in the Gospel of John that assurance is given to those who receive and believe in Christ that “he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). It is within this adopted status as a child of God that true fellowship with others is founded. 

The transition from vertical to horizontal is explained by our Savior in his high priestly prayer:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:20-23).

 

Our fellowship finds its root in the fellowship of the God-head as Jesus prays that our unity reflect the unity between him and the Father. We are able to fulfill the command of Jesus to “love one another” (John 15:12) as our affections for, and friendships with, one another grow because of the love we first received from Christ.  The desire Jesus has to be with the Father will also be mimicked in the desire of his people to commune with one another. The admonition from Hebrews reminds the church to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Heb. 10:24-25). It takes work for God’s people to be in community with each other. It is in this work, however, that Christ promises “wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them” (Matt. 18:20). No matter the setting, whether formal or informal, when two Christians meet to share matters of faith together, the Lord promises his presence.

It is important to know the family of God. We have been bought at a price and adopted into God’s family. Having this fellowship with God we, naturally, will have fellowship with other believers (1 John 1:7). This is precisely where understanding fellowship breaks down though, because one cannot grow as one ought with others if one first does not know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. As Marva Dawn states, “Lacking peace with God, we cannot be at peace with anybody else. The root of our failures to share in community, then lies in our unbelief.” We must devote ourselves to fellowship and growing with other Christians—there is a sense in which we must prioritize fellowship. Fellowship is being part of the Church, sharing in common the relationship of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a growing partnership to be brothers and sisters in Christ, pointing one another to Christ continually, a needed companionship with other believers, a united stewardship of resources, and most importantly, the gospel itself (Acts. 2:42-47). The church is called into fellowship in order to encourage one another, love one another, and bear each other’s burdens (Acts 2:42, Heb. 10:25, Gal. 6:2). Packer help summarize the horizontal and vertical dimensions of fellowship:

Fellowship with God, then, is the source from which fellowship among Christians springs: and fellowship with God is the end to which Christian fellowship is a means. We should not, therefore, think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has

made us in such a way that our fellowship with Himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.

 

Finally, this fellowship is something where each member of the Body of Christ

shares in each other’s gifts and graces. All parts of the Body of Christ are connected to one another making it function properly as the head, our Savior Jesus Christ, directs and guides (Eph. 4:15-16). Every member and every believer—being a piece of that Body—plays an important role in helping it to grow. As Calvin says, in his commentary on Ephesians, “if we wish to be considered members of Christ, let no man be anything for himself, but let us all be whatever we are for the benefit of each other. This is accomplished by love; and where it does not reign, there is no ‘edification,’ but an absolute scattering of the church.”