Part 2
The Basis of Our Fellowship
But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 (ESV)
This article is part of a series of articles dealing with
our koinonia, our fellowship in Christ, as believers in Jesus Christ. It comes from lessons learned from the epistle
of 1 John. This particular article is
about the basis of our fellowship and comes from 1 John 1:1-10. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage
you to stop here and go read those verses.
Dramatic pause…
Ah, good, you are back.
As a reminder from the Part 1 of this series, koinonia is the act of sharing and participating in life through a close personal bond. In that article, I explained how the close personal bond that ties us together is Jesus Christ. However, what exactly does that mean? In what way does Jesus bind us? In other words, what is the basis of our fellowship?
The answer to that question is found in the first 4 verses of 1 John 1, which read:
1 That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and
have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen
it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are
writing these things so that our joy may be complete. (ESV)
Do you see it there in verse 3? John says that everything he has seen and
heard is being proclaimed to “you” for the very purpose of including “you” into
the fellowship – a fellowship not only with John but with God the Father and
his Son Jesus Christ as well. What
exactly did John proclaim? The answer of
course is the gospel.
The basis of our
fellowship is the gospel!
Also notice as John describes the gospel that he doesn’t describe it as something that he has witnessed. Rather, he describes it from the perspective of all the witnesses. Look how many time he says “we”
- That which we have heard
- That which we have seen with our eyes
- That which we look upon and touched with our hands
In these 4 verses, the words we or us or our occur about 13
times (depending upon the translation used).
His whole emphasis is on the collective of the church as a whole. Jesus established – indeed he continues to
establish – the church not from the witness of one person but from the
collective witness of the whole; and the emphasis on the whole has not
diminished in over 2000 years.
Since the bond of our fellowship is the church, and since the basis of that fellowship is the gospel, and since the gospel is all about Jesus, look at how John refers to Jesus in these verses.
First, he refers to Jesus as “The Word of Life”. He tells us that Jesus was the word of God made manifest and that the word of God has come in the flesh. The idea here is not that we just read about God through our bibles, but that we understand the incarnation of God’s word through the life of Jesus Christ and that we experience God himself through our faith-based fellowship with Jesus Christ. That is what is meant by the word manifest – to be revealed in such a way as to be fully understood.
He also refers to Jesus as “The Eternal Life.” Notice he doesn’t say that we proclaim how to have eternal life; he say we proclaim the eternal life, meaning Jesus himself. Jesus is the embodiment of eternal life. Certainly we are granted eternal life when we put our faith in Jesus, but Jesus IS eternal life. There is no life without him and there will be no eternal life that does not have him as its focus. Indeed, eternity without Jesus is eternal damnation.
However, what I really want you to notice is what it says in the second half of verse 3, which I have already mentioned briefly. He says “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The basis of our fellowship with one another is the one thing we all have in common with one another, the fellowship each of us, as believers in Jesus Christ, have with the heavenly Father himself. Said differently…
The basis of
our fellowship is our UNITY in the gospel.
The gospel brings each of us into fellowship with the Father
and, as a result, that common fellowship with the father becomes a common bond that creates unity between us – all made possible because of the
gospel.
Does that mean we cannot have fellowship without the gospel? Well, yes… and no. Outside the gospel, the only fellowship we can have with one another are earthly things we may have in common – hobbies, interests, groups to which we belong, etc. Unfortunately, these can change over time. At different times throughout my lifetime, I have been a musician, a golfer, a geocacher, a frisbee golfer, a camper. I have held numerous job positions at several different companies. I have been a student and I have been a teacher. Each of these “idenitities” that I have worn have been accompanied by its own unique bond of fellowship. In some cases even true friendships have been formed. But these things are all temporal. They come and they go and with them the associated fellowship is often broken.
Believe it or not, even church membership can be a fellowship with have with each other, but unless that fellowship is based on the gospel, not simply on church membership, it is nothing more than a temporal bond that ebbs and flows with time and circumstances.
True koinonia - the fellowship we have in Christ - is different because it is based on a unity that goes beyond interest, beyond race, beyond even time itself. It is a unity based on an eternity founded in the gospel itself. That makes our relationships to fellow believers - fellowship in Christ - supreme over all other relationships. Everything else is just a cheap imitation of the fellowship we have in Jesus.
How sad it is that the supremacy of our koinonia is so often unrealized.
My concern… my fear… yeah, even my suspicion… is that most of us have never experienced true koinonia. How do I know this is true? Because it has always been true. Conflict existed in the church in the first century and it has continued to exist in the church down through the ages.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 (for your outside reading) tells us of the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given in Jesus Christ. First God reconciled us to himself, then he gave us the ministry of reconciliation so that we may have unity in Christ and may share with others how they, too, can be reconciled to God and be a part of the fellowship. If we are not founded in the knowledge of that which unifies us and are not committed to the idea that our unity in fellowship is more important than almost anything else,[1] we will continue to wallow in conflict and find more and more ways to show the world why they shouldn’t be a part of our fellowship.
Here's the thing. When we really experience true koinonia, it is life changing. It is only then that we truly understand what it means to be part of the fellowship. Until that time, we may be members of a church, but we don’t really understand what it means to be a part of the church.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that if you have never experienced this that you are not saved, just that you’ve never gone deeper in your fellowship than the imitation fellowship that anyone can have. And therein lies the problem with many of our churches today. If the fellowship we experience inside the church is no different than the fellowship we can experience being a part of any other social organization, then what really will draw people to Jesus Christ and the church. This, too, is why so many people today say they are “spiritual” and even say they are “Christian” but have no love or desire to be a part of organized religion.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the gospel. It is truth. We either believe and accept it or we do not. But it is the fellowship of the church that is a testimony of the power of the gospel in the lives of believers. If we do not experience this, then we are truly missing out on one of the greatest testimonies to the gospel itself. More than that, we are personally missing out on the abundant life Jesus intended for us. We are just living a shadow of what was intended, and if that’s the case, it is no wonder no one wants to join us. But Jesus intended so much more for us than that. True koinonia results in a life full of joy and satisfaction and belonging.
There is absolutely nothing like the friendship and fellowship that is founded first and foremost on the gospel. I hope you will consider this and commit yourself to pursuing this next level fellowship, and in the next article, we will begin to examine how we can find that fellowship.
Next
time: The Prerequisite of Fellowship
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. Romans 16:25-27 (ESV)
[1]
Truth and Sound Doctrine – the one thing that supersedes unity itself. We must always defend doctrinal truth.
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