|
Christian fellowship is
presented as the norm of Christian living. It is a concept that we have all
heard of, but do not always understand. Fellowship is not a two dimensional
relationship but a three dimensional one which also incorporates our
relationship with God. Indeed fellowship without the active participation of
God is friendship. Friendship is fine and good but is only part of what
fellowship is.
The church is in one sense of meaning our corporate fellowship with God. We
will look at the relationship of individual believers with each other. The
first section covers your personal fellowship habits and the second section
addresses small groups organized for the purpose of Bible study and
fellowship.
Personal Fellowship Primer
Psalm 133:1-3 talks about fellowship and shows us that the fellowship that
we, as Christians, have is a special gift. We need to remember that it is a
privilege to be with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a
gift from God given to us by Christ through the ministry of the Spirit.
We are now living in a state of relative spiritual peace. However, when
Christ was ministering to us, He was surrounded by His enemies. Think of how
different life would be if we were unable to be public Christians. The last
few years have seen tremendous opportunities worldwide for Christian
fellowship without persecution. The privileges of fellowship we now have are
part of what Christ died for.
Psalm 133:1-3 A song of ascents. Of David. How good and pleasant it is when
brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the
collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life for evermore.
For this blessing to be active in our life, several conditions need to be
met. The first is that if we expect to have Christian fellowship, we must
meet other Christians. To do this, we must seek them out. This means that we
must be a visible and public Christian.
We should not limit our search for fellowship to Sunday mornings, but rather
think of it during the whole week. If no one at our plant, office, school, or
neighborhood knows that we are a believer, how can they fellowship with us?
We will have limited ourselves to one day of fellowship per week.
How different the world becomes for us when we are sharing it with a brother
or sister. This aspect of fellowship gives us many opportunities for giving
and receiving. It can also expose new areas of our life and work to prayer
and Christian obedience. This begins to happen naturally as we become
accountable to each other and Christ.
A second point to consider is that not all fellowship opportunities will
develop into long term relationships. Many will be a brief meeting.
Fellowship may occur on a plane, waiting to be seated at a restaurant, indeed
anywhere there is another Christian. In the same way that we can limit our
fellowship opportunities by only looking on Sunday, we can also limit
fellowship opportunities in other ways. If we have a laundry list of
conditions that must be met before fellowship can occur we will be limiting
God's ability to bless us and others.
Some people find it helpful to wear a pin or other symbol that identifies you
as a believer. This can help break the ice when introducing yourself. It all
gets back to the fact that a "visible" Christian will have more
fellowship opportunities. Both God and God's people can be found everywhere.
Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three
thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer.
Christians meet together to share spiritual truths. They are prepared in
heart and mind to be a blessing and to be blessed. Fellowship, like most
other things in life is enhanced if we are prepared for it. We would not
expect to have a good day sailing on the lake unless we have learned how to
sail a boat. In the same way we should not expect to have good fellowship
unless we are prepared for it. Be prepared to be a blessing to someone by
being grounded in God's word. For example, have a spiritual blessing to
share, what has He shown you today. Share something from the time that you
have spent in Scripture and prayer today. Let the time you spent with God
bless two people instead of just one. Then you can devote yourself to the
teaching and living of God's way.
Christians meet together to be friends. We are not pure spiritual beings. We
have a human, physical, need to be with other people. Do things with other
Christians, such as, play some ball, pound some nails, perhaps even do some
shopping! Quality Christian fellowship can often happen around non-spiritual
activities. Don't be afraid to have some fun. Having a good time while being
good is part of God's plan for you. It is not at all a bad thing to have fun.
Indeed, if your Christian walk is one of woe and misery, you probably have
more of a spiritual problem than a fleshly problem. The disciples and Jesus
participated in life. They were not wall flowers. See John 1:2; Matthew 9:10,
14-15; Luke 6:21.
Continuing with the passage from Acts 2, we see that Christians eat together.
Now this sounds kind of simple and boring but Jesus didn't think so. Scan a
Gospel for references to food, drink, and eating. I think you will be
surprised at how many of them there are.
God, who made us, has given us a dual nature, physical and spiritual. Eating
together with other believers helps us to be whole because it ministers to
the body and spirit. From a practical standpoint it is also another daily
event to bring the Lord into.
When we eat, we can establish a linking pattern or habit of spiritual
activity in something we will not forget to do (that is eat). Use meals, as
well as other recurring events to build in spiritual opportunities. Praying
before your restaurant meal is also another way of being a visible Christian,
although we aim much higher than a before meal prayer for the fellowship of
believers with Christ and each other.
That brings us to the last item we are looking at in Acts 2. Christians pray
together. Be open for prayer opportunities. Prayer brings in another player.
The fellowship is now three way, between two (or more) people and the Lord.
Matthew 18:20 says "For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I with them."
As we meet together we also need to know each other well enough so that we
can pray for each other effectively. This means being honest and open about
our triumphs and failures. It means being open to the opportunity, as well as
the vulnerability, needed to pray with each other. Christ, also made himself
vulnerable, even to death, for our privilege to fellowship with Him.
John, writing in 1 John 1:3 states that one of the purposes of their (the
Apostles) ministry is that we have fellowship with the Father and the Son,
Jesus Christ, and also with them. To be faithful to the teachings of the
Bible we need to be in a state of Christian fellowship.
1 John 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also
may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with
his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
The passage below from Philippians sheds more light on the responsibilities
we have when in fellowship. When we consider that fellowship is a divine, and
not a human, activity we look at it in a new way.
Philippians 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if an comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any
tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than
yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also
to the interests of others.
Comfort, tenderness, compassion, like minded, love, one in spirit, nothing
out of vain conceit or selfish ambition, humility, interests of others, this
one passage has a shopping list of spiritual fellowship dos and don'ts. We do
well to remember them as we meet together.
Fellowship needs to be kept pure, for it to be a reflection of His
kingdom to come. See also 1 Thess. 4:9-10, 1 Cor. 13:13, 1 Pet 4:8-9, 1 Pet
1:22.
And lastly, be courageous enough to love extravagantly. Love as if you have
an endless supply and you can get more when ever you need it, for this is
indeed the case. Love does truly conquer all. People truly will know that we
are Christians by our love. Good Christian love allows us to see not with our
eyes, but with our heart. Be brave enough to love first and you will find
wonderful people all around you every day.
|