Fellowship is quite an old fashioned word. These days its probably only people who go to church, or people who are Lord of the Rings fans who actually use the word fellowship! Of course I will be looking at this word in the context of the church.
Generally its considered essential to have fellowship with our fellow churchgoers to properly involve ourselves with the community, but does this just mean that we should attend all the social events at church or is there a bit more to it? Why do we have a special word that on the outset just seems to mean “getting together with people who have the same beliefs”?
Perhaps we should start by investigating if the word fellowship turns up in the Bible and what it meant to believers in Bible times.
The word fellowship does indeed appear many times in the Bible, and a lot of these occurrences are linked in with the establishment of the early church in the New Testament, so a look at a few examples should give us the help we need. I’m going to use a translation of the Bible called the Amplified Version today, because it helpfully gives additional nuances of words in brackets, as you will see in the quotes below.
This first verse talks about how Jesus’ disciples behaved after they received the Holy Spirit and formed the first early churches:
And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread [including the Lord's Supper] and prayers. – Acts 2:42
This verse shows that fellowship was considered very important by the disciples because the early Christians were constantly encouraged to come together as a community.
This next verse refers to the behaviour of Christians who wanted to help out with the ministry:
[They were] Begging us most insistently for the favor and the fellowship of contributing in this ministration for [the relief and support of] the saints [in Jerusalem]. – 2 cor 8:4
Here we see that helping and supporting others in our church who are in need is also a way of expressing fellowship.
Next we shall look at what Paul wrote in a letter to the early church at Philippi:
[I thank my God] for your fellowship (your sympathetic cooperation and contributions and partnership) in advancing the good news (the Gospel) from the first day [you heard it] until now. – Phil 1:5
So not only is help and support part of fellowship, preaching the gospel is as well! Fellowship is turning out to be all encompassing in terms of what we can do for our church.
Let’s look at some more words of Paul, this time in one of his letters to the church at Corinth:
God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. – 1 Corinthians 1:9
Fellowship in the above verse is the phrase ‘companionship and participation’. Think about it – this verse says that fellowship is being friends with and joining in with Jesus. So when we do all the things we’ve talked about so far, we not only have fellowship with the church, we have fellowship with Jesus. Does this make you think twice about the way you behave with your friends from church, and the activities you do or don’t volunteer for?
Paul continues to mention fellowship again later in the same letter:
The cup of blessing [of wine at the Lord's Supper] upon which we ask [God's] blessing, does it not mean [that in drinking it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the blood of Christ (the Messiah)? The bread which we break, does it not mean [that in eating it] we participate in and share a fellowship (a communion) in the body of Christ? For we [no matter how] numerous we are, are one body, because we all partake of the one Bread [the One Whom the communion bread represents]. – 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Now we’re really getting deep. Whenever we take communion, the bread and wine, this is in itself an act of fellowship. We’re not just friends with our fellow believers, we actually become one with them as together we all form the body of Christ, his elect church, working and waiting with him for the promise of the kingdom.
Finally, I shall let the apostle John put the icing on the cake:
What we have seen and [ourselves] heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And [this] fellowship that we have [which is a distinguishing mark of Christians] is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). – 1 John 1:3
If we are in fellowship with our fellow believers, and with Jesus, we are also in fellowship with God. What more can we ask for? Fellowship is so much more than getting together for a social, its the all encompassing environment which surrounds us whenever we are with people of like precious faith. So let us thank God for the gift of fellowship and pray that we may use it to become more like Jesus on our walk to the kingdom.
