Many Christians think of fellowship with other believers as just getting together on Sunday morning, maybe mid-week, maybe at a Bible study, and hanging out. I’ve heard so many say they don’t need the church. They don’t need to be with other Christians. They can hear a teaching online, they can worship God by themselves. They can do their Christian faith alone.
My guess is a lot of those people have been hurt by others in the church, and I understand that hurt, but I also know God desires to heal our hearts and bring us back into fellowship, a deep, meaningful spiritual fellowship, something that is far greater than simply getting together.
“God is faithful, and by Him you were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:9
The word for fellowship here is koinōnia – partnership, participation, communion.
At the moment of salvation, we’re called into partnership with Jesus Christ, to commune with Him, to participate with Him in our own spiritual growth, as co-laborers of His work here, and as co-heirs of our eternal inheritance.
This same word, koinōnia, is used to describe the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
Because we’re called into a partnership with Christ, and we are filled with His Holy Spirit, we are called into a partnership, a fellowship, with one another.
You might have heard of another fellowship, one solely built around a ring. Its purpose wasn’t just to socialize (although they did do that), but to fulfill a singular vision, a mission. This fellowship of nine banded together to see that a ring and its evil power was destroyed, saving their world.
Each member had a different position with its own responsibility, its own strengths, none less important than another. They worked together as one, realizing that no one member can fight the evil power alone.
Like that fellowship, God’s given us different gifts to use and we need each one.
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:27
We’ve been called to come together as one body, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to use our God-given gifts “for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, and for the building up of the body of Christ (each other), until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God…” (Eph. 4:12-13a)
We are each members of a fellowship, not to destroy something, but to lift up and glorify the Holy and Righteous One as we journey through this life, maturing in Christ, doing the good works God prepared for us to do, leading others away from the enemy and pointing them to Christ and to salvation, and battling side by side in spiritual warfare through prayer, until the day God destroys the evil one.
The Bible says the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, and a lion loves nothing more than to get his prey alone.
The enemy of Christ can and will attack us with lies, discouragements, temptations, misdirection, anything to try to separate a believer from the truth, and that is so much easier to do when a person is not surrounded by the fellowship, the partnership, the ministry of other believers.
“…you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22
This is who we are. Christ is the cornerstone and each of us is added as a brick to be built together as the living temple of God.
This is our fellowship with one another, the Fellowship of the Son.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for this amazing and blessed calling to partner with Jesus. I pray for not only a clear vision of your will for us corporately and individually, but a passion to carry it out. Help us know the gifts you’ve given us and to partner with Jesus in using them according to your will to serve you and our brothers and sisters in Christ. For those who are without a church right now, I pray you would lead them to a Spirit-filled group of believers where they can minister and be ministered to. And for those who have been hurt, I pray you would give them the ability to forgive for the healing of their hearts. Give us the will, the strength, and the courage to not allow the enemy to keep us from our calling, our purpose, but to fulfill it for your glory. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.