• • FMIN Event Reports
• • Partner Mission Reports
• • Partner Outreach Reports
• • What In The World Is Happening?
• • Healthy Living
• • Look What The Lord Has Done/Heart to Heart
• • Workplace Leaders Network
• • Download Newsletter

Fellowship

Fellowship noun: friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests (Webster Dictionary). The biblical term fellowship comes from the Greek word, koinonia, which means 'to share in common.'

There's social fellowship, and then there's that special fellowship when the shared interest includes God and the unexplainable camaraderie that two or more believers can enjoy.

Philemon 2:1-2: 'So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.'
There's just something completely satisfying about sharing a new truth or old scriptural encouragement with someone who gets it.

Perhaps the reason humans savor and crave fellowship is because it began with Father God and His Son, Jesus Christ. John 17:23 conveys this closeness, "I in them and you in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them even as you loved Me."

John expresses this concept to the early Church when he wrote, "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"
(1 John 1:3).

Then we read, "But if we really are living and walking in the Light, as He Himself is in the Light, we have true, unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin and guilt" (I John 1:7; Amplified Bible ).

How we relate to people is a mirror of how we relate to God. James B. Richards writes in his thought-provoking book, My Church, My Family:

It is the goal of God that every believer enters into meaningful relationships with Him and with others. He is our Father. We are His children. We are a part of the family of God. We were created for the sole purpose of knowing and fellowshipping with God.

Jim goes on to say:

There is no greater need in a person's life than that of meaningful relationships, yet there is nothing more threatening. We were created in the likeness and image of God and He is a social, emotional, relationship-oriented being . . . Other Christians are the only source of true fellowship we have in this world.

Jim further states, "The mark of knowing and experiencing God is that we love one another. Therefore, walking in love should be our top priority in serving God. All that we would do for God is meaningless if it is not done from the motive of love."

Love. Life. Fellowship. Embrace it.

"Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays." - Andrew Murray

replies