Fellowship: With The Father, Son, And Each Other

FELLOWSHIP
With The Father, The Son And Each Other

Koinonia, the Greek word most often translated “fellowship” or “communion” in our English Bible, simply means “sharing in common,” or having a “common union.” This “common” does not mean ordinary or commonplace, but an equal sharing together; and “union” implies close togetherness, oneness. Jude 3 mentions our “common” salvation, using koinos, the Greek root of koinonia.

Fellowship is first demonstrated in Genesis when the three persons of the Trinity collaborated in creation, speaking together (or communing) as they did so. Both Father and Son, “the Word,” were active in creation (Jn. 1:1-3), as was “the Spirit of God” who was “hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:2). All three fellowshiped in the work of creation.

God’s ultimate creative work was man, made in God’s own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27) for the declared purpose of companionship, or fellowship. The Creator himself came to walk and talk with them in their lush garden environment (Gen. 3:8). No such relationship of Creator with any creature other than man – not even angels – is ever recorded.

The Creator made humankind male and female, consecrating what we call marriage as the first, and ultimate, human fellowship. “It is not good for the man to be alone,” God said; “I will make a helper suitable for him.” Adam commented, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” and the sacred commentator said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:18, 21-24 NIV).

The marriage union is the human version, or reflection, of the communion the persons of the Trinity enjoy together: they are one, they speak to each other, complement one another in their actions and ministries, and accompany each other; no one of them is ever alone.

LIFESTYLE OF THE CHURCH
Though koinonia is a New Testament word, harmonious togetherness was also known in the Old. Probably the best-known and most profound Old Testament statement about fellowship is this: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! ... For there the Lord bestows His blessing” (Ps. 133:1-3).

Koinonia is God’s plan for His Church, and it was the defining lifestyle of the early Church. Acts 2:42 says that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This fellowship is not simply one of four parts; it is a basic element underlying everything else. The “breaking of bread,” the Lord’s supper, is a celebration of this fellowship, or “common union,” at two levels. First, it is fellowship with our dying Savior: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation (koinonia) in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation (koinonia) in the body of Christ?” Second, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16-17). The word koinonia does not appear here but it is clear that in the Lord’s supper we express and celebrate our oneness – our fellowship – with one another as well as with the Lord Himself.

After writing that “God has called you (collectively) into fellowship (koinonia) with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9), Paul immediately addresses a practical denial of that fellowship in Corinth, taking them to task for their factions and divisiveness, a root cause of their other problems (1:10). In 1 Corinthians 11 he further instructs them that self-centeredness and inconsideration of one another at the Lord’s supper is a practical denial of the oneness of Christ’s body, the Church. The Lord’s supper, often called “communion,” is meant (among other things) to express the fundamental oneness of all believers in fellowship with each other, as well as Christ. This oneness is violated when communion is observed on a false premise, in an atmosphere of division. In fact, Paul says, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper you eat” (1 Cor. 11:20). It is so serious that God had disciplined some of them by ill health and/or death (1 Cor. 11:17-34).1

Collective prayer of Acts 2:42 is also fellowship as we meet together in God’s presence; prayer is a corporate ministry as well as a private one. Acts 12:5 records that “the church was earnestly praying” for the imprisoned Peter. An old hymn by H. Stowell says: “There is a spot where souls unite, and saint meets saint in heavenly light; though sundered far, by faith they meet before the common mercy seat.” 2 As a spiritual exercise, prayer unites saints scattered around the globe at the “common” mercy seat to present to God united praise and petition.

Paul’s wish for the Romans was that God would “give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:5-6). Prayer practiced according to the teaching of Christ and the apostles unites Christians in common focus and dependence on “our Father in heaven.” But the effectiveness of prayer is short-circuited when koinonia is missing between believers.

Koinonia also found plenty of expression in practical ways in the new-born Church: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people” (Acts 2:44-47; 4:32-35).

Fellowship was not expressed simply in a schedule of meetings, but as an ongoing way of life. They shared their meals, their material possessions and the joy of their relationship with God together; and it all served to commend them to the people. In a world filled with self-centered individualism, factions, strife, dissension, enmity, rivalry, division and war, what a wonderful spectacle is a body of people enjoying each other’s company, interacting lovingly and harmoniously together, caringly nurturing each other. All this, not on the basis of common interests or other human commonalities, but on our common relationship in Christ who unites and harmonizes even opposites when He is given ultimate priority. Again, King David seemed to be describing this very thing in Psalm 133:3, quoted earlier, when he ended with, “for there the Lord bestows His blessing.”

This is what Jesus prayed for: “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me” (Jn. 17:23). Jesus also said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (Jn. 13:35). Thus, genuine, observable, harmonious fellowship among Christians is a must, a fundamental element in our witness to a watching world. In the book of Acts it was reality.

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON
Though Jesus’ sacrifice is essential to the fellowship that is the Church, true fellowship is centered not in Jesus’ work but in His person. John wrote: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life ... 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” (1 Jn. 1:1-3).

John and the others had experienced and enjoyed intimate, ongoing fellowship with Jesus over a three-year period. They knew Him as well as they knew their own families, and had traded up from all lesser human relationships to the ultimate relationship with Jesus. This brought them also into fellowship – shared intimacy – with His Father, based on His own intimacy with Him.

Jesus offered this intimate fellowship, based on revelation, in this statement: “All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Mt. 11:27). He revealed His Father (Jn. 14:6-11) to those who “fellowshiped” with Him, the apostles. And now John, speaking for all of them, reveals Jesus to us as well, and the Father with Him.

Matthew 11:27 does not say, “No one knows the Son except the Father and those to whom the Father chooses to reveal Him.” But in Matthew 16:17 Jesus says to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this (Jesus’ identity as Messiah) was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.” The Father and Son delight to reveal each other to the disciple who is eager to know them. Jesus also speaks of it as a reward to obedient disciples: “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn. 14:23). Thus, obedience brings us personal intimacy, as though sitting around our living room together with the Father and the Son just sharing all that is on our hearts!

This is the relationship that is at the heart of true, biblical fellowship, the fellowship the apostles experienced with Jesus and now share with us. The key is Jesus! It is each living the daily intimacy of communion with the Father and the Son, and sharing that experience in common with each other, universally.

Fellowship is an intimate, personal relationship. Even the Scriptures do not truly enlighten us if we fail to meet Jesus there. To the religious zealots who constantly taunted and tempted Him, Jesus said: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me” (Jn. 5:39-40).

So Jesus Himself is both the reason for and the result of sincere inquiry into the Scriptures. The main purpose of the Word is not knowledge, but relationship – fellowship. As each believer deepens in fellowship with the Son, he is drawn closer to Him. If Jesus is the hub of the wheel and each believer is a spoke, the closer each grows to Jesus, the closer, too, to all the others. That’s the Church! And that’s the fellowship experienced and practiced by those first Christians in the book of Acts.

END NOTES
1. This passage does not address confession of personal sin. The self-examination (1 Cor. 11:28-29) has to do with the sin of disorder and self-centered disregard of the Lord’s body – the “community” of believers, the Church – in the sharing of the Lord’s memorial. Rather than confession, it’s about humbly and deliberately participating in an expression of the integrity of Christ’s body: “A man ought to examine himself before he eats.” Or as the ESV puts it, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat.” There is no doubt that we must approach the table with no conscience of sin (Ps. 66:18). But the teaching here has to do with approaching the Lord’s supper in solemn appreciation and recognition of the koinonia which it represents and our participation expresses. We cannot honor oneness while practicing or supporting division.
2. Spiritual Songs, Central Hammond Bible Trust, Wooler, England, #246.

By Bill Van Ryn