God’s Light On Fellowship
God’s Light On Fellowship
The community development specialist from a major university addressed the issue of “How to Achieve Community Today” by first cataloguing earlier attempts that failed. When he presented his own proposal, his confident attitude was not enough to convince the audience of educators, social workers and city planners. One particular statement he made concerned them: “You can achieve success by listening to everyone, by celebrating the diversity of ideas and by finding a new gathering center for the community.”
It became evident that this specialist was in trouble when someone in the audience asked: “How can people possibly live in community when the only thing they have in common is the fact that they have nothing but location common?” His feeble attempt to shed more light on the subject only intensified the listeners’ frustrations. As the confusion mounted, my mind was drawn to some key features of Church fellowship set forth in Acts 2:42-47 (NIV), and how superior they are to any of man’s vain attempts to achieve community.
These features are:
- “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching ... to the fellowship ... to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
- “All the believers were together, and had everything in common.”
- “They gave to anyone as he had need.”
- “They broke bread in their homes and ate together.”
- “They ... ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
- They were found “praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
- “And the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
In the midst of man’s confusion and failure, God’s community, the Church, succeeds because of the light He sheds on achieving and guiding it: “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 Jn. 1:7). To learn more about true Christian fellowship, read this month’s Features.
By Larry Ondrejack