Fellowship: Defined and Experienced
|By Sean Cavender|
The biblical word ‘fellowship’ is used in the New Testament in a variety of ways. Generally, it means “an association involving close mutual relations and involvement” (Louw Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, 445). Louw Nida also defines fellowship as “one who participates with another in some enterprise or matter of joint concern—‘partner, associate, one who joins in with” (ibid., 446). The Greek term for fellowship is used in Luke 5:10 to describe the business partnership between the sons of Zebedee and Simon Peter.
It is interesting to notice the variety of ways and persons with whom Christians have fellowship.
- We have fellowship with God’s Son (1 Corinthians 1:9)
- We have fellowship with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14)
- We must be in fellowship with the witness of the apostles who were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ (1 John 1:3)
- Light must have no fellowship with darkness/righteousness must have no partnership with lawlessness (2 Corinthians 6:14)
- Fellowship is granted between Christians who agree and teach the same thing (Galatians 2:9)
- Christians are called to join in fellowship with Christ, even in His sufferings (Philippians 3:10)
- Christians are to be partners in the gospel (Philippians 1:5)
- Christians have a sharing and partnership through a financial relationship with those who preach the gospel (Philippians 4:15-16)
- Christians have fellowship and sharing in the body and blood of the Lord through the participation of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16)
- The early church continued in fellowship with each other (Acts 2:42)
We could categorize fellowship into a few broad categories:
- Our relationship with the three members of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit)
- Our relationship with the truth of the gospel
- Our partnership with other Christians in sharing the gospel
- Our worship through the joint participatory acts of the Lord’s Supper and giving of our means to support the preaching of the gospel
- Our righteous behavior
The psalmist wrote, “we who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng” (Psalm 55:14). Thus, fellowship is a spiritual blessing from God in which we can join with friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord.
