English Definition of Fellowship
Before we begin , let’s get a glimpse of our word “fellowship” from the English dictionary to see what it might add to our understanding. An English dictionary can shed a lot of light on the Bible if we would use it in our Bible study. The translators chose English words according to their real and exact meanings. When we study our Bibles we assume we understand the full significance of a word, but often our ideas are very incomplete. This is particularly true of the word “fellowship.”
According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary it means: (a) companionship, company, associate (vb.); (b) the community of interest, activity, feeling or experience, i.e., a unified body of people of equal rank sharing in common interests, goals, and characteristics, etc.; (c) partnership, membership (an obsolete usage but an important one. It shows what has happened to our ideas of fellowship).
There are three key ideas that come out of this:
(1) Fellowship means being a part of a group, a body of people. It is opposed to isolation, solitude, loneliness, and our present-day independent kind of individualism. Of course, it does not stop there because we can be in a crowd of people and even share certain things in common, but still not have fellowship.
(2) Fellowship means having or sharing with others certain things in common such as interest, goals, feelings, beliefs, activities, labor, privileges and responsibilities, experiences, and concerns.
(3) Fellowship can mean a partnership that involves working together and caring for one another as a company of people, like a company of soldiers or members of a family.
When Do We Fellowship?
1. We are having fellowship when we sing with a congregation with or without instrumental music.
2. We are having fellowship when we pray with a congregation of a church of Christ or a denomination.
3. We are having fellowship when we invite a preacher to come and preach for us. He may be a faithful preacher of the gospel. He may be an unfaithful preacher of the gospel. He may be a denominational preacher.
4. We are fellowshipping when we appear on a program with a faithful preacher of the gospel, an unfaithful preacher, or a denominational preacher. God's faithful servants must speak out against false teachers and false doctrine if they appear on a lectureship program with them (Eph. 5:11). It is a sin to be on a lectureship with false teachers and know them to be so but refuse to speak out against them and their false doctrine (II John 9-11).
5. We are fellowshipping when we announce and encourage people to attend a gospel meeting. Would a faithful church of Christ announce a revival for the Baptist church, the Methodist church, the Catholic church, or any other denomination? This would be a sin (Rom. 16:17-18). How then could a faithful church of Christ announce and encourage people to attend a meeting with an unfaithful congregation or a congregation using an unfaithful preacher?
6. We are fellowshipping when we encourage people to attend a vacaction Bible school whether it is with a faithful church of Christ, and unfaithful church of Christ, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, a Catholic church, or any other church. What faithful church of Christ would encourage peole to attend a vacation Bible school at any denomination? What faithful preacher of the gospel would go preach for a denomination in their vacation Bible school without letting them know of their denominational wrong?
7. We are having fellowship when we announce the homecoming of a faithful church of Christ, an unfaithful church of Christ, or any denomination. What faithful church of Christ would announce the homecoming services of a denomination?
8. We are having fellowship when we go and participate in a homecoming of a faithful church of Christ, an unfaithful church of Christ, or any denomination. If we worship with them in any way—in congregational singing, quartet singing, small-group singing—then we are fellowshipping with them. If a denominational church or an unfaithful church of Christ has a fellowship meal and we participate in it, then we are fellowshipping with them.
9. We are fellowshipping when we ask a person to pray at a religious gathering. No faithful congregation would ask a person living in adultery to lead in prayer. No faithful church of Christ would ask a Baptist preacher to lead a prayer in the worship services. No faithful church of Christ would ask any denominational preacher to lead in prayer.
10. We are having fellowship when we ask a person to teach a Bible class. This is why faithful Christians are used to teach. No faithful congregation would think of asking a Catholic priest to teach a Bible class. How can brethren think they are doing right when they ask an unfaithful preacher in the church of Christ to teach or preach at any gathering of the church?
11. We are having fellowship when we ask a person to pass the Lord's Supper or to wait on the Lord's table. This is why brethren will not use unfaithful members to serve at the table. What faithful church would ask a Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, Presbyterian, or any other member of a denomination to serve at the Lord's table? How then can we use any member of the church that will not obey the Lord's command relative to Christian fellowship (Eph. 5:11; II John 9-11; Rom. 16:17-18)?
12. We are having fellowship when we support radio and television programs and announce them. Churches and individuals should make sure the preacher on these programs is sound in the faith as well as the congregations that oversee these programs.
But what about Christian fellowship according to the Word of God and the words for fellowship as they are used in the New Testament
Concepts of Fellowship in the New Testament
A. Relationship
In the New Testament, what is shared in common is shared first of all because of a common relationship that we all have together in Christ. Koinwnia was an important word to both John and Paul, but it was never used in merely a secular sense. It always had a spiritual significance and base. The idea of an earthly fellowship founded upon just common interests, human nature, physical ties like in a family, or from church affiliation was really rather foreign to the apostles.
In the New Testament, believers can have fellowship and share together because they first of all have a relationship with Christ and share Him in common (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:3). The New English Bible translates 1 John 1:3 as follows: “what we have seen and heard we declare to you, so that you and we together may share in a common life, that life which we share with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
Fellowship is first the sharing together in a common life with other believers through relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Fellowship is first and foremost a relationship, rather than an activity. The principle is that any activity that follows, should come out of the relationship.
In Acts 2:42 the early church was not merely devoting itself to activities, but to a relationship. It was this relationship that produced an active sharing in other ways. It is so important that we grasp this. Fellowship means we belong to each other in a relationship because we share together the common life and enabling grace of Jesus Christ.
There is also, however, a negative aspect. Because of our relationship with Christ, there can be no legitimate fellowship with the world, demonism, idolatry, or anything that is contrary to Christ and our relationship with Him (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14f).
B. Partnership
Whereas the word relationship describes believers as a community, partnership describes them as the principals of an enterprise. A business partnership is always formed in order to attain an objective, such as providing a service to the public at a profit for the partners. In the same way, the concept of a spiritual partnership implies that it is created with the objective of glorifying God. Just as all believers are united together in a community relationship, so we are all united together in a partnership formed to glorify God …
… Biblical fellowship, then, incorporates this idea of an active partnership in the promotion of the gospel and the building up of believers.3
This element is strongly brought out in the argument of the author of Hebrews who shows us that believers are both partakers of and partners with Christ in His salvation, kingdom, and purposes for earth and man.
In Hebrews 1:14 this “salvation” which believers are to inherit, within the context of the passage, includes the believer’s share in the Son’s triumphant dominion in which He has partners, those who belong to Him and are involved with Him in His kingdom and reign (1:9; 2:10,13; 3:1). This partnership, however, begins here on earth, and this forms the foundation for what believers will share with Him in the future kingdom. We are responsible to share with Him in the work He is now doing on earth so we can share in the blessings of the future by way of rewards (cf. Luke 19:11f; 1 Cor. 3:12f). A steadfast confidence in Christ is vital or we will defect and fail to carry our responsibilities as His companions. As those who share in His life through faith, we are also partners with Him in His enterprise and purposes here on earth. We are His representatives on earth (cf. 1 Pet. 2:5f).
Note Hebrews 3:14 which may be rendered, “… we have become partners with Christ.” It can mean “sharer, partaker.” “Of Christ” then becomes what we share in: we partake of His life. This is true, but I don’t believe this is the point here. As in Hebrews 1:9, the author is saying we become companions, partners of the Christ, the Messianic King, but to share in what He is doing now and in the future, we need fidelity and confidence in Him (cf. Rev. 2:26-27).
Distinction Between Relationship and Partnership
Relationship describes what we are: a community of people bound together by our common life and blessings that we share together through our relationship with Christ. Partnership describes how we are related to each other in that relationship: we are partners in an enterprise and calling in which we are to work together in a common purpose to obtain common objectives for the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 1:27).
Later, as we look at the foundation for fellowship, we will see that our relationship with Christ is like a coin, it has two sides, union and communion, or relationship (the positional side) and fellowship (the experiential side).
C. Companionship
Companionship is the interchange or communication (communion) that exists among companions, those associated together through a relationship they hold in common. The key ingredient in companionship is communication. Key words that describe companionship are “interchange, communion, sharing.” Communication is the sharing of concepts, feelings, ideas, information, needs, etc. through words or other symbols like body language and actions so that all members of the relationship hold these things in common.
In the Christian community, companionship includes communicating on a spiritual level through a mutual sharing of the things of Christ: the Word, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the ministries and gifts of the various members of the body of Christ.
Companionship through communication would include:
(1) The Vertical: This is our communion and fellowship with the Lord through the Word, prayer, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the abiding life.
(2) The Horizontal: This is our communion and fellowship with the body of Christ, other believers. This includes: (a) assembling together as a whole body (Acts. 2:42; Heb. 10:25); (b) assembling in smaller groups (2 Tim. 2:2); (c) meeting together one-on-one (1 Thess. 5:11); (d) sharing and communicating truth together and building up one another (Rom. 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess 5:11; Philem. 6); (e) sharing together in worship, i.e., the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 10:16), the singing of hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), prayer (1 Cor. 14:16-17), the ministry of the Word (Acts 20:20; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Pet. 4:10-11); (f) sharing together as partners in the needs, burdens, concerns, joys, and blessings for the purpose of encouragement, comfort, challenge or exhortation, praise, prayer and physical help according to the needs and ability (cf. Phil. 1:5 with 1:19; and 2:4 with 1:27; also 4:3; Rom. 12:15; and 1 Thess. 5:11,14,15; Heb. 10:33).
This means we must develop the loving art of communication. We need to be willing to share our own burdens and aspirations and be available to hear what others are saying so we may minister to needs according to the directives of the Word. The ultimate goal is to build up and enrich others in the things of Christ that we may all together experience the sufficiency of His life and tune our lives into His. We need others for that. As the early church was first devoted to the apostles’ teaching, they were also devoted to caring for one another and to sharing with one another what they were learning and what Christ was meaning to them (Acts. 2:42; Heb. 3:12-14).
D. Stewardship
A steward is one who manages the property of another. A steward is not an owner; he is a manager. As stewards we must recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord and has been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purposes. Believers need to be willing to share their material possessions for the promotion of the gospel and to help those in need. Good stewardship stems from recognizing our relationship to Jesus Christ, but it also means recognizing our partnership in Christ’s enterprise on earth.
In any good partnership, the partners share equally in both the privileges and responsibilities, the assets and liabilities, and the blessings and burdens. What kind of partnership would it be if one partner took all the income and enjoyed all the privileges while the other partner did all the work and paid all the bills? Would you enter a partnership like that? No, of course not! Partners are to share and share alike in all the aspects of their enterprise. They may not do the same things. In fact, they will be much more successful in their enterprise if they work and share according to their abilities, expertise, and training, but still share the load.
It is interesting that one of the most prominent uses of the koinwnia group of words is its use in connection with sharing material blessings—giving money to meet financial needs. Of the 36 usages of these words, they are used 9 times specifically in connection with giving, and in a couple of other passages giving would be included among other aspects of fellowship (Acts 2:42; Phil. 1:5; Heb. 10:33).
The concept and application of this partnership/stewardship combination is seen clearly in 2 Corinthians 8:12-15. “Paul envisioned a continual flow of believers’ possessions toward those who have needs. This is an outworking of koinwnia, and an important expression of true fellowship.”6
What was happening here? What was Paul wanting to see done? Paul was asking the Corinthian believers to have fellowship as partners, as fellow sharers in Christ and laborers together in the gospel. As partners, they were to give out of their abundance to other partners, to other believers, even though they had never met. Why? Out of love, certainly , but also because they were partners in the Savior’s enterprise on earth.
Relationship: The Foundation for Fellowship
As we’ve seen, fellowship is first a relationship. But, sometimes the term relationship is used of our subjective experiences. A man might say, “I have a good relationship with my wife.” He means that they get along well, they communicate and enjoy one another’s company. But the most basic meaning of relationship deals with objective fact. It refers to the condition or fact of being related to someone as a son to a father or a wife to her husband. This is particularly true with the concept of relationship as we use it theologically. Relationship refers to an objective fact.
Relationship means we are related to God as His children, born into His family by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. Then, as believers in Christ, we are related to Christ and to each other in that we have been joined into union with Him; we are members of His body through the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship means we share this relationship and it is an objective fact regardless of our spiritual condition (cf. 1 Cor. 1:2 with 3:1-3). In this sense, we must understand and act on the following concept: RELATIONSHIP stands to FELLOWSHIP as UNION stands to COMMUNION.
This means we must ever keep in mind that our experience with God and with one another grows out of the objective fact of our relationship with the Lord Jesus (cf. Eph. 2:5, 6). Only those who are in relationship with one another (objective fact) can have true fellowship (subjective experience).8 We must first have a real living relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ before we can have experiential fellowship with God. As this is true with God, so it also becomes true in our fellowship with one another (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).
In the Bible, fellowship embraces both the objective and experiential aspects. However, for the experiential to occur, we must first have the objective fact. Why? Because the relationship aspect of fellowship (the objective fact) forms the foundation for all the other aspects of fellowship. In relation to God, relationship/union provides the motivation, the means, the confidence, everything we need to reach out to appropriate our new life as those who are related to the living Christ. It is because we are related to Christ that we are partners and related to each other. It is because we are related as a household of God’s people that we share and give (Gal. 6:10; 3 John 8).
Partnership: The Means of Fellowship
As pointed out earlier, Paul and John never used the term fellowship in a purely secular sense. It always had a spiritual base and a spiritual means. The idea of an earthly fellowship founded upon simply common interests or common likes or dislikes or similar personalities or human opinions or purely physical ties was a foreign idea in connection with Christian fellowship.
For these human authors of Scripture, Christian fellowship was tied directly into spiritual realities. Certain things must be involved or we do not have Christian koinwnia. The first essential is the foundation (the objective aspect), but it also includes the means of fellowship (the subjective aspect).
If we are to share experientially in the life of Christ, and if we are to share together as partners and as companions in an effective and meaningful way, certain things are a must. Without God’s means of fellowship, we can’t have true Christian fellowship. What we end up with is mere religiosity as it pertains to God, and simply social interchange and a compatibility of old sin natures as it pertains to men.
The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
In 2 Corinthians 13:14 we have the clause, “fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” A question arises as to whether “of the Holy Spirit” is objective (the object of our fellowship, a participation or sharing in the Holy Spirit), or subjective (the fellowship or sharing which the Holy Spirit produces or provides as the means, the agent). In Philippians 2:1 we have the same construction and the same question. There is no question that all believers mutually share in the person and ministries of the Holy Spirit as is clear in Hebrews 6:4 (metochos).
2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
This verse has three “of” clauses in the Greek, each referring to the three persons and gifts of the Trinity. Normally we would expect such clauses to be parallel grammatically. If we can determine the pattern of one by the nature of the clause, the others would normally follow the same pattern (cf. Tit. 3:5).
(1) “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is the grace which the Lord Jesus Christ gives (subjective), not grace which the Lord Jesus Christ receives (objective).
(2) “The love of God” is clearly the same. It is the love we receive from God (subjective), not the love we give to God (objective). This follows by the pattern set in the first clause, but also from the last statement, “be with you all.” The context deals with what we receive, not give.
(3) “The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Following the above examples, it is more likely that the third genitive (tou @agiou pneumatos) is also subjective (“the fellowship engendered by the Holy Spirit”; cf. Eph 4:3) than that it is objective (“participation in the Holy Spirit”).9
Philippians 2:1 If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
This passage likewise consists of three clauses, one with “in,” and two with “of.” Again we have a similar parallel. “Encouragement in Christ” is an encouragement which comes from being in Christ. “Consolation of love” is a consolation which comes from love. So likewise, “fellowship of the Spirit” is a fellowship which the Spirit gives.
All aspects of fellowship are dependent upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Before salvation, fellowship with God in the sense of relationship (union) depends on His pre-salvation work, the conviction of truth, followed by His work of regeneration and baptizing accompanied by the Spirit’s indwelling as a gift of the Father and the Son (John 16:8f; 2 Thess. 2:13; Tit. 3:5; 1 Cor. 12:12,13). After salvation the experience of fellowship in communion with God depends on the filling of the Spirit. Carnal Christians cannot have true fellowship either with God or with one another. They simply will not be functioning as partners, companions, and stewards. About the best they can have is a compatibility of human friendship, or backgrounds, or of likes and dislikes, but true fellowship engendered by the Spirit will certainly be hampered because carnality grieves and quenches the Spirit. In a question designed to show how Israel’s sin had hampered their fellowship with the Lord and ability to function as God’s people according to His purpose for the nation, Amos asked, “Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment (an agreement)?” (Amos 3:3).
Fellowship in the Gospel
Acts 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Central to these believers’ fellowship was the teaching of the apostles. Being devoted to our relationship, partnership, companionship, and stewardship depends on our devotion to Scripture.
Philippians 1:5 “in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.” This partnership for all the churches of Macedonia as with the Thessalonians began with hearing and receiving the Word (cf. 1 Thess. 2:13).
1 John 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The coming of the Son and the proclamation of His Word was not an end in itself, its purpose was fellowship. Fellowship in all its aspects comes from the proclamation of the Word of Christ. True fellowship must have its foundation in the Word and it must get its energy, direction, and scope from the Scriptures. This is central, but unfortunately in our day of the “feel good” kind of Christianity other things have become central and the Bible has been given a back seat.
A passage that is pertinent here is 1 Corinthians 1:10-2:5. These verses deal with the division brought about by the variance of men’s opinions concerning personalities and forms and emphasis in worship as it pertained to such things as baptism and its importance, and the use and function of showy gifts like tongues. What the Corinthians were emphasizing in their meetings was undercutting the ministry of the Word which proclaimed the sufficiency of Christ, a wisdom certainly not of this world. Furthermore, because they had failed to grasp the very heart of the gospel, their fellowship with Christ, they were cliquish and snubbing the poorer saints when the church came together (11:17-34). So, Paul sought to demonstrate that what men need is the wisdom of God’s Word and its message of Christ. This is the basis of fellowship, not forms of worship or showy gifts.
So we should also note the preceding context, 1:9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” As we have seen, fellowship has as its fundamental meaning the concept of having a share in, partnership, having a common share. All believers share in common the life of Christ positionally and experientially. Consequently, they also share with one another in Christ’s enterprise on earth. This is the hinge upon which Paul attacks the party spirit in the verses that follow.