Fellowship

There is something powerful about the gathering of believers. When brothers and sisters come together to spend time in prayer and worship, something supernatural happens. God resides in their midst at that moment and is pleased to dwell there. As it says “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). We need more of those moments and we also need the consciousness of the fact that God is in our midst when we gather together as believers because we carry the presence of God in our bodies. This week, I had the privilege to celebrate a sister’s birthday and that gathering made me see the importance of fellowship for brothers and sisters. Before I searched for the right definition of the word “fellowship”, I described it as “a communion of saints with one another, the like-mindedness God expects of us” and this was based on what came across in my reading of the word. The result of my research, told me that the word “fellowship” is translated in the bible from the Greek word “koinonia” which means ‘holding something together’[1], ‘sharing in common’[2]. As I was encouraged by that fellowship, I wanted to remind us as the writer of Hebrews does to not neglect to meet with one another as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). We need the communion of each other. If we are to imitate Jesus in every way, we must imitate him also in his communion with the Father. Sadly, in the current times we live in, there are many distractions coming in various forms the enemy throws at us with the single goal to keep us from meeting with one another but I pray, as you continue to read, you will see the necessity, the privilege and the power behind meeting with one another.

With everything that is related to the Christian life, the right place to start to understand how we are to function and why we are to function a certain way is always with God. Indeed, we did not make ourselves Christians, we were chosen and adopted into the family of God by God Himself through the sacrifice of His son Jesus on the cross. We did not create ourselves, nor did we decide to come into this world. We came into a world that already existed and certain rules and laws were already in place by the Creator. All we had to do was to submit to our Maker’s rules but we did not, hence our current predicament with sin and its consequences. Fortunately for us who have believed in the Lord Jesus, we have been set free from making wrong choices and disobeying the divine order of things, we who were once slaves to sin are now free to righteousness (Romans 6:18). This means, we can now obey our Father, we can now say ‘no’ to sin and the desires of the flesh, we can now submit to God. This submission to God involves doing things the way God wants them to be done which is one reason we ought to be in fellowship with one another because we are to imitate the fellowship that exists between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That koinonia is also ours in Christ. We too, must replicate that level of oneness and togetherness in our relationships with fellow believers because we share the same spirit. This is the reason we must not neglect to meet together. When the writer of Hebrews exhorted the believers to do so, he or she was encouraging them to persevere in their faith, to not give up and to continue to have hope in Christ. It is very interesting that a call to persevere led the writer to encourage them to not neglect meeting with each other. This tells me there is something that lifts up our spirits when we meet with each other, there is delight and the presence of God is palpable. I love that, the Lord in His kindness to us made us into people who would experience such fellowship. He could just have decided to save us and make us holy in his sight and that would have been enough but He decided to go further, allowing us to experience all that He has to offer including communion with Him. The book of John stresses the point about us being one with the Father, us abiding in Him and Him in us. This is intimacy at its best and we get to have that as children of the Most High! I think this calls for a praise. God is so gracious to us, He is so loving and kind and I simply want to say thank you for these blessings.

Likewise, Paul, in the book of Corinthians talked about the oneness and unity we ought to have as believers who make the body of Christ, that is his church. This fellowship could also be seen in all the letters Paul wrote to the churches he planted. His goal was to encourage such churches but in his letters, he would often mention other believers that helped him along the way by accompanying him on the journey, being present with him and walking alongside him. The apostle Paul, who was persecuted for his faith and was very bold for Christ saw the importance of not neglecting to meet with one another, how much more should it be of us today? I believe, fellowshipping with other believers help us humble ourselves. It helps us see our need for each other, our dependency on one another. It helps us see that God is our source and we are nothing without Him. It reminds us that we fellowship because ‘we live and move and have our being in Him’ (Acts 17:28). In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the image of the human body to help the Corinthians understand their oneness in Christ and the implications of that when it comes to fellowshipping with one another (1 Corinthians 12-27). When one member of the body is broken, the whole body is suffering, the whole body feels it. Moreover, when one member wants to be a ‘loner’, the whole body suffers too. Our Christian walk is not a walk of ‘loners’. We are never and should never be alone and were not called to be alone. Christ is always with us, he will never leave us nor forsake us. As believers, we should not seek to isolate and refuse to be around fellow believers irrespective of whether or not they annoy us, whether we despise them, or love them. The bible is clear that we called to be in fellowship with believers because we share the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17), there is joy, there is reconciliation, there is love, there is peace, there is kindness, etc. The benefits are not just spiritual but physical as well. God restored us to the relationship we had with Him in the beginning before we were even in our mother’s womb. He knew us before we came into this world and so whatever relationship we had then, He is restoring us to that level. This means, our old way of thinking that is self-oriented, self-satisfying must change. We learn to think not just of ourselves but of others. We learn to please not just ourselves but others. In fact, we learn to put the needs of other brothers and sisters above ourselves. This is huge and it reflects that sacrificial love the Lord calls us to imitate. Once in my small group, a comment was made to the extent of “when Christians meet each other anywhere, they feel a deep bond, whether they knew each other or not”. This comment was made in the context of believers who move from place to place for various reasons. As such believers move to new places, they meet other believers and they immediately feel a sense of family. I wonder, have you felt that before? If you have, know that it is but a glimpse of the fellowship God wants us to have with other believers for the purpose of experiencing Him and knowing Him better.

The end goal here is God because it started with Him and it will end with Him. He is not the Alpha and Omega for no reason. We are just His workmanship, we are His vessels and He decided to promote us to the rank of ‘sonship’. Glory be to His Name. Hallelujah! I pray you never neglect meeting with brothers and sisters and may the Lord increase your view of the church, His bride. Amen.

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[1] Cardoza, F., 2021, Understanding Christian Biblical Fellowship https://seminary.grace.edu/understanding-biblical-christian-fellowship/

[2] GotQuestions What is koinonia? https://www.gotquestions.org/koinonia.html