True Biblical Fellowship
[1]
Part 1
Has your church
organized any programs for the purpose of encouraging occasional informal
socializing of its members who live within close proximity of one another? It has?
Great!
It
is surprising how easily we Christians drift toward the inclination to equate
casual informal socializing with the word ‘fellowship.’ I believe it can be demonstrated that when
the Bible speaks of fellowship it is not talking about members getting together
for a pot-luck lunch. But what’s
important is to understand what is really contained in the word fellowship.
“Are you saying, Monty,” someone will ask, “that church members are not
supposed to get together socially?”
Not at all. That would be a
twisting of my words. I am saying that
for our churches to describe informal social get-togethers with the word fellowship is an incorrect use of the
word. But more importantly, I am saying
that there are times when social gatherings take place to the exclusion of
actual biblical fellowship that could otherwise be taking place.
The Greek word in the Bible for fellowship is koinonia. Two references in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia are of Romans 15:26 and 2
Corinthians 9:13 –
Romans 15:26 –
… make a
contribution (koinonian) for the poor among the Lord’s people in
Jerusalem.
2 Corinthians 9:13 –
… and for your
generosity in sharing (or ‘of your contribution’ or ‘participation’) (koinonias) with them and with everyone else.
Of
these two passages the encyclopedia says:
The meaning “contribution” is drawn from the context rather than
from the Greek word. The phrase in the
passage cited, literally rendered, would be “to exercise” or “put fellowship
into activity.”
The same encyclopedia continues with other examples:
Hebrews 13:16 – And do
not forget to do good and to share (koinonias) with others …
To be “communicative” (koinonikoi) is to be a
habit of their lives, the Christian principle being that of the holding of all
property as a trust, to be distributed as there is need (Acts 2:44, 2
Corinthians 8:14 f).[2]
The Strong’s Concordance has this definition:
koinonia: fellowship
Definition: (lit. partnership)
(a) contributory help,
participation,
(b) sharing in, communion,
(c) spiritual fellowship, a
fellowship in the spirit.[3]
Mainly, the essence to be gained from the word fellowship is that it contains some kind of active purpose, or that
the fellowship, even as described by the word communion, is a spiritual description. We see this in 1 John 1:3 –
That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (KJV)
In
reference to this passage, Matthew Henry wrote:
It is communion with heaven, and in blessings that come thence
and tend thither. There is a communion
(or common participation of privilege and dignity) belonging to all saints,
from the highest apostle to the lowest believer. What it is and where it is: And
truly our fellowship (or communion)
is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. See to what the gospel revelation tends – to
advance us far above sin and earth and to carry us to blessed communion with
the Father and the Son. See for what end
the eternal life was made flesh – that he might advance us to eternal life in
communion with the Father and himself.[4]
True Biblical Fellowship
Part 2
Part 1 of this essay began by describing how the biblical notion of the
word fellowship differs from informal social gatherings of members of any given
local church. At that time I provided
some definitions from the International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia and from the Strong’s Concordance, after which I included a reference from Matthew Henry’s Commentary. Definitions for the word fellowship included contribution and participation, indicating that
the idea of fellowship had to do with activity and purpose.
Other explanations, descriptions and definitions of the word for
fellowship are available from scores of reference sources.
The idea conveyed is that fellowship is a spiritual relationship, not
between one believer and another, though it is a reality for all believers, but
that it is a relationship between believers and the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
Yet, even in this context, there is the idea of a relationship involving
some kind of activity, of a participation that accomplishes a purpose. What is not conveyed is the idea of
church members getting together for a picnic.
During a study of Mark 14, J. Vernon McGee said,
And you’ll find out He ate the Passover Supper here with them
and the next meal He had with them was breakfast on the shores of the Sea of
Galilee after His Resurrection. And I
think this was a wonderful time of fellowship.
I personally do not criticize church dinners,
in and of themselves. I think they can
serve a wonderful purpose. But the type
of church dinners we have today, they’re not quite what they should be. It’s a wonderful time for people to meet and
have fellowship around the person of Christ.
And when He’s not the center, and we’re having it just to have a gay old
time and then call it fellowship, I think we’ve missed the entire point. I think that it’s far from being what it
should be and it’s an occasion to meet around the person of Christ.[5]
Essentially, true fellowship is with and about Christ. I do not doubt that those who attend such a
church dinner as McGee mentioned would all emphatically declare the gathering
to be Christ-centered. Whether in
reality it is or not can be tested. True
fellowship accomplishes some purpose.
Such as what?
First of all it accomplishes correct corporate worship. Correct? According to whom? Is it a surprise that it is God who decides
how He is to be worshiped? We learn
about this from careful examination of our Bibles. Again, I am not saying that social gatherings
between church members are prohibited, but that the word fellowship is not the right description for those gatherings.
Next, true fellowship accomplishes something for someone else, beginning
with the Lord’s people themselves, as we saw with the explanations that were
given that described contributions.
What sort of contributions?
Food? Isn’t it a contribution
when everyone comes together for a pot-luck lunch? That’s not exactly the purpose I imagine that
is sought to be accomplished.
On
the other hand, if the group is bringing food to distribute to the poor in the
community then a purpose is being accomplished.
But notice an important thing: As
with everything else having to do with the Lord, it’s the motivation that
matters. If the motivation for coming
together is to help the needy, they’ve acted appropriately. If their motivation is for their own
self-interest, I question whether the event should be called fellowship.
Do
not misunderstand me. There is a place
for local church members to have get-togethers.
But when the Bible speaks of fellowship it is talking about something
else.
True Biblical Fellowship
Part 3
It
does no good at all for me to make a game of semantics over the word fellowship
and to make a great thing out of a small matter, if it is a small matter. Who cares whether or not you call church
members getting together for fun and food ‘fellowship’
or just ‘socializing?’
This
essay will show that there are some very good reasons – very important reasons
– to have the most accurate understanding possible of the word fellowship, reasons that are very
relevant to huge numbers of people within the set of believers that make up the
Body of Christ, The Church.
There are several ways to show this.
First, by biblical examples we see that the idea that fellowship is the
result of coming together for a purpose and that the coming together itself is
not its own purpose.
Take, for instance, the account given in Exodus 35 from verse 4 forward,
regarding the gathering of material for the building of the tabernacle. For example, verse 21 says:
Everyone
whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought
the Lord’s contribution (Hebrew: terumah) to be used for the tent of meeting, and
for all its service and for the holy garments. (NASB)
In
short, it was people coming together and making contributions for the Lord’s
purpose. As a matter of fact, when we read
on into chapter 36, verses 2 through 7, we see that they continued to come with
their contributions to the point that Moses had to give the order for them to
stop bringing any more.
Consider also how the Jews who had been released from exile in Babylon
returned to Jerusalem and got together to rebuild the temple. See, in Nehemiah 3 for example, all the names
of people who contributed and what their contributions were.
Then see in Nehemiah 8 how all the people came together to hear Ezra’s
reading of the Law. It says that Ezra
read from daybreak till noon and that all the people there stood up just to
hear it read and that they worshiped the Lord.
It says that the people mourned as they listened to the reading and that
then Nehemiah told them, “Now do not mourn or weep. Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks,
and send some to those who have nothing prepared.” And that’s what they did. They came together for a purpose – to worship – and
then they had their pot-luck picnic.
See this illustrated in picture form -
How many other examples we might be able to find, I have no idea. But the point is that from biblical examples
we see that fellowship is a byproduct of coming together for a purpose.
This is important, as this essay will clearly demonstrate in significant
terms, and is not simply a game of semantics.
Biblical examples were the first of several methods I will use to show
the importance of arriving at the most accurate understanding possible of the
word fellowship.
Next, I can give true-life examples from my own life, as I’m sure many
other people could give their own testimonies.
In
2002 our neighborhood was devastated by a flood. Many homes were completely swept away. Our home was severely damaged. Government assistance agencies were beginning
to be put into action. But the very
first people who showed up to give us aid were some people from my own
church. This is notable for a few
reasons, one being that my church is in an altogether different county from
where we lived, and in Texas that is no minor factor.
God bless those people. Our
neighborhood was a scene of major destruction.
Those volunteers worked most of the day removing downed trees, clearing
debris and shoveling mud. I will be
grateful to them for the rest of my life.
And right out there in the middle of all the destruction, they set up a
table and we all shared sandwiches and punch and cookies together. That
was fellowship.
They weren’t the only ones. A
church group from a totally different state showed up out of nowhere and helped
us and our next-door neighbors. When the
day was done and it was time for them to leave, we all came together. There was maybe a dozen or so of us. And we all stood together and held hands and
said prayers of thanks. That was communion. That was fellowship. I don’t even
know who they were.
Again,
we see that fellowship is a byproduct of coming together for a purpose. Fellowship is not its own purpose.
[1]
Excerpted from the book Hello Church, An incoming call from one of
your own (self-published by Monty Dicksion, 2013),essay, “Fellowship,” p.
21, or website http://onetruthplease.blogspot.com/2013/06/fellowship-1-of-6.html
[2] International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Biblos website, http://topicalbible.org/c/contribution.htm,
site accessed 06/27/2013
[3] Strong’s
Concordance,
Biblos website,
http://biblesuite.com/greek/2842.htm,
site accessed 06/27/2013
[4] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI, The Zondervan
Corporation, 1961), p. 1955
[5] OnePlace.com website, Thru the
Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Mark 14:1-21, http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/thru-the-bible-with-j-vernon-mcgee/listen/mark-141-21-232130.html,
site accessed 06/27/2013
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