"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." 1 John 1:7
Fellowship. I have spent three weeks inviting people to be a part of our Christian fellowship, but I never really pondered the meaning of the word. My viewpoint has always been that fellowship is a more inviting way of saying "come to our group gathering of church folk". Growing up we had fellowship Sundays and a fellowship hall, and I think I have heard the word so often that I take it for granted.
Here, in this verse, it says that if we are following Jesus, we have to be in fellowship with not only Him, but one another as well. The word fellowship is translated from the Greek feminine noun koinonia and its close cousin the masculine noun koinonos. The concept appears roughly thirty times in the New Testament and signifies much more that just a group gathering.
According to my lexicon, it means community, communion, joint participation, intimacy, partnership, sharing, communication, contribution, distribution, partaking, partnership... fellowship.
It is the word used in Acts 2 to describe the community within the Early Church...
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
It is used in 2 Corinthians 1:7 to indicate the Church's partnership with the apostles... "And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
... and in Philemon 1:6 to express Paul's prayer for Philemon's ministry "6I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ"
Several other passages use koinonia to refer to the way we are linked to God through Christ and our intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 1:9, it is used to describe our relationship with God himself.... "9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
1 Corinthians 10:16 reads, "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?"
Paul's prayer in 2 Corithians 13:14 is ":The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. "
Koinonia is has deeper meaning than membership in a group or the act of spending time together. To be in koinonia is to be partners with one another, to communicate with one another, to walk through life together, to make decisions together, to share resources, joy and even suffering together.... it requires intimacy. It requires taking a risk and joining your life with the lives of others. It is active, it is dynamic, and it is meant to be shared and distributed... it means being intricately connected to others who recognize that God is inviting us to commune with Him and to partner with Him to advance His Kindgom.
So, do you want to be a part of Christian fellowship?
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