No one can doubt that this is an age of ecumenicity. Everybody
is talking about getting together with someone else for dialogue or
merger. Even those who are opposed to the ecumenical movement
are merging and uniting. In other words, wherever you are today
you are involved in a complex world where everybody is trying to
make it more simple. The Apostle John gives us some guidance by
teaching about fellowship. This will help us to know what to do in
all relationships of life. If we know what Christian fellowship really
is, we will be able to determine which relationships in life are
consistent with fellowship with the Father and Son. Verse 3 supplies
us with these three things: 1. The essence of fellowship; 2. The
essential of Christian fellowship; 3. The extent of Christian
fellowship. We will consider them in that order.
I. THE ESSENCE OF FELLOWSHIP.
What does the word fellowship mean apart from any Christian
content? This word did not just fall out of the sky into the Bible, nor
did John make it up, nor did God give it to him as a new word. It
was a Greek word in wide usage long before it became a part of the
Bible. Koinonia is the Greek word. It was used to refer to many
relationships by the Greeks in which people shared a common bond.
Business partners, trade guilds, and burial societies were all called
fellowships in the first century. Those who had a common social
relationship had fellowship, and those who shared a belief in a
common god had religious fellowship.
The basic idea is a relationship persons have because of what they
hold in common. This meaning is clearly seen in the New
Testament. This verse, for example, has that meaning for John. He
is saying, we are declaring what we have seen and heard to you,
because once you also know it, then we will have a common
knowledge and belief. This is the very essence of fellowship.
Without something held in common between two persons there is no
possibility for fellowship.
In all four cases of the use of the word communion in the KJV it
is a translation of koinonia-the same word translated 15 times as
fellowship. There is no distinction between the two at all in the New
Testament. Sometimes we hear, "May the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all," as if they were two
different words, but they are not, for they are identical. Paul says
in II Cor. 6:14, "What communion has light with darkness?" In
other words, what koinonia, or fellowship, can there be, for what do
they have in common? On the other hand, the Lord's Supper is
called communion. The meaning is clear, for when we partake of
the elements symbolizing the body and blood of Christ, we
remember together the common basis of our salvation. What do
believer's have in common? They have salvation through the shed
blood of Christ on the cross, and, therefore, this most basic and
common factor in our lives is called communion, or fellowship.
II. THE ESSENTIAL OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.
John says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you." This is what distinguishes Christian fellowship from all other
forms of fellowship. It has one foundation and that is the historical
Christ. Nothing else can constitute a basis for Christian fellowship.
If we did not have an objective record of what the Apostles saw and
heard, we could have no common basis for fellowship. The very
reason the Bible is in print is not just to satisfy our curiosity about
the past; it is the only way that the revelation of God can be a
common factor in the lives of all believers. The Word of God in
print makes it available to all men, and thereby increases the basis
for fellowship.
The Gnostics, whom John was opposing, had just an opposite
attitude. They said, keep the truth in the hands of the elite. Do not
make it common knowledge, or it will be contaminated. The truth is
only for the intellectuals. The vulgar masses are unworthy of it. But
John says, I am putting down in writing what we have seen and
heard so that anyone can read and believe, and then enter into a
common union with us and God. The basis of Christian fellowship
is not locked up in a temple vault. It is not confined to any priestly
class or body of intellectuals. It is not composed of mystical or
magical incantations learned only by the elite. It is found in the
form of paper and ink-the most common means of communication in
the world. Christian fellowship is based on fact, and not fantasy,
fiction, fallacies, or force. That which was seen and heard is
recorded, and this objective factual record is the foundation of true
Christian fellowship. By this alone the Christian determines what is,
and what is not, Christian fellowship.
Many other things are held in common and provide a basis for
fellowship, but only when this essential factor is involved can it be
called Christian fellowship. If Jews and Christians have fellowship
around the ten commandments, which they hold in common as the
Word of God, it would be true fellowship, but it would not be
Christian fellowship, for the essential for that is not in the ten
commandments. This means there is two levels of fellowship. There
is a level based on anything in common, and then there is the
Christian level based on the revelation we have in Christ. This
means a Christian and a non-Christian can have fellowship based on
common interests, but it is not Christian fellowship. It is not even
Christian fellowship when two or more Christians get together to
watch a game or share in some common secular interests. It is
fellowship, but it is not Christian fellowship.
Christians have fellowship with non-Christians in many areas of
life. It might be in sports, or music, or culture of all kinds, or
hobbies, or clubs, or of a professional nature. Jesus had a great deal
of fellowship with unbelievers of all kinds from Publicans to
Pharisees. In His manhood He had things in common with each, and
He used that common bond to make contacts with all people. This
enabled Him to have the opportunity to lead them into a higher
fellowship with Himself as Savior and Lord, and not merely as a
man and friend.
To criticize someone for having Christian fellowship with an
unbeliever is folly, for it is impossible to have Christian fellowship
with one who does not have Jesus as their Savior as a common bond.
To criticize them for having natural fellowship with them is also
folly, for any Christian who does not have natural fellowship with
unbelievers is not doing God's will as a child of light. There is no
way you can be the light of the world and the salt of the earth
without some form of fellowship with unbelievers. This does not
mean a Christian can participate in anything sinful with
unbelievers, but it does mean they can share in common many
interests which are legitimate. Jesus sets the example, for He could
fellowship with sinners and yet never be defiled by sin.
A little boy who was lonely said to his mother, "I wish I was two
little puppies so I could play together." That was a natural
expression of the desire for fellowship. We have a need to have
something in common with someone else. The Christian is to take
advantage of this natural desire, and use it for the glory of God by
finding a common basis for fellowship with an unbeliever, and then
introduce him to what you have in fellowship with Christ.
We have seen that the essence of fellowship is the relationship of
persons who have something in common. We have seen that the
essential of Christian fellowship is the reality of the historical Christ,
and one's acceptance of Him as Savior. Now let's consider-
III. THE EXTENT OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.
You cannot be a Christian alone. When you enter the kingdom of
God you can only do so alone, in the sense that only you can make
that decision, but after you enter you become a part of the body of
Christ, and are from then on you are not your own, for you belong
to Christ. After a person is saved he is in a family where he has
many brothers and sisters who share in common with him the same
heavenly Father and Savior. John desired to share his experience
with Christ that others might enter into this fellowship with him and
the other Apostles.
Every picture of the church in the New Testament illustrates the
concept of fellowship. It is a body with all cells in the body having a
common interest in the life and health of that body. It is a building,
and all the stones form a common structure. Jesus said I am the
Vine and you are the branches. A branch not connected with the
Vine will wither and die. Christian fellowship is not a luxury, it is a
necessity, for you cannot be a Christian alone. Jesus says the
shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the one lost sheep. The 99 can
survive temporarily, but if the one is not found and brought back to
the fold, it will parish.
William Morris once said, "The lack of fellowship is hell." This
is literally so, for those who do not enter the body; the building; the
vine or the fold-that is the church of Christ, will not have fellowship
with God but be separated in outer darkness forever alone. A Latin
proverb says, "One man is no man at all." You cannot have
anything in common without someone to have it in common with. As
soon as a person trusts in Christ as Savior they become a part of a
vast fellowship of believers from all races where all are equal in
Christ.
The Gnostics were extremely prejudiced. They felt
Christians were contemptible and absurd in treating the riff raff
and lower classes as equals, but Christian fellowship is extended to
all in Christ. God loves all for whom Christ died and this means all,
and so our fellowship goes all the way to what we have in common
with God and Christ. We have a common bond with God Himself
and so our fellowship extends to the highest heaven and to the ends
of the world and to all peoples. Only Christian fellowship leads us to
be partners with God, for Jesus, the God-Man, is the common bond
between God and man.
