The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his086/fellow.lzh/FELLOW.TXT

Text File | 1991-06-30 | 6KB | 118 lines

DEV:We need more fellowship among the brethren!  by Perry W. Phillips

   I can think of no more delightful subject to consider. I can imagine
no greater pass time. Above all others in the world BRETHREN share
something most precious in common...A special intimacy...even more
important...Jesus Christ.

   A religious doctor might in diagnosis pronounce the greatest
spiritual health in those who practice FELLOWSHIP with their brethren.
On the contrary those who despise, or simply neglect fellowship with
their brethren are the visualization of spiritual sickness. It is a
supreme pity to hear brother cut and defame brother.

   PSA 55:12-14 If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a
foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him.

   But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,
with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng
at the house of God.

   Can you feel the sadness in David's words? How it hurts when an
enemy attacks... But how it pierces to the heart when it is a brother.

   WE NEED MORE FELLOWSHIP AMONG BRETHREN!

   The first reason for such fellowship is our SHARING. You see,
fellowship is SHARING. The greek word for fellowship is KONONIA, and it
literally means participation... it means partnership. Christians are
involved together in the greatest partnership ever contrived.
Especially since its origin is found in God himself. To receive the
greatest benefit from that partnership each brother MUST participate.

   A business partnership will not last where there is distrust between
the partners. Marriage...the greatest partnership, will not last when
there is a failure to commune, communicate, or participate with the
other partner. Why should we think that the sanctity of the church
would be any different?

   Without fellowship there can be no love! Without fellowship there
can be no zeal! Without fellowship there can be no care! Without
FELLOWSHIP the church DIES!

   It has been said that, "FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT" but, the very
little time we spend with one another would indicate that we had
developed contempt far sooner than we had familiarity.

   God wants us to fellowship... Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying:
1CO 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord, is faithful. (NIV)

   Apparently, God desires us to be in fellowship with His Son. John
added:

   1JO 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you
also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (NIV)

   In addition to fellowhip with Christ and His apostles the Bible
teaches us that the early church fellowshipped with one another.

   ACT 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to
the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (NIV)

   Finally, the key ingredient to the success of that fellowship was
defined by the Holy Spirit through John saying:

   1JO 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies
us from all sin. (NIV)

   More fellowship among brethren will provide a greater familiarity
and knowledge of our brothers NEEDS. There should be nothing more
crucial to us than the well being of our Brethren. Paul wrote:

   PHI 2:1-2 If you have any encouragement from being united with
Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the
Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy comp- lete
by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and
purpose.

   Our very first purpose is to be united with Jesus Christ... Why is
it then that we think that is obvious concerning OUR lives, but
virtually ignore the relationship of others with the Lord? Our
fellowship will be enriched when we find comfort in the love of Jesus
Christ... Comfort that will not appear if we fail to FIND COMFORT IN
ONE ANOTHER. Fellowship will become rich when we have developed what
Paul here calls the "FELLOWSHIP WITH THE SPIRIT."

   Paul encouraged the brethren to be of a SINGLE MIND, and SINGLE
LOVE, to have one spirit and a SINGLE PURPOSE. All of these things we
desperately need to encourage in the church today... but, at the same
time we should not be sidetracked by our brothers immaturity, but
encourage his growth. Paul said of himself:

   PHI 3:10-14 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in
his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the
dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been
made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ
Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have
taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

   Don't you suppose that if Paul recognized his imperfection that he
just might have developed a sense of forebearance toward his brothers?
Consider all of the sins that he identified in the church at Corinth
yet he instructed the brethren to withdraw from only one. Let us
develop a sense of forebearance... while we teach and fellowship with
our brethren GROWING TOGETHER TOWARD PERFECTION IN JESUS CHRIST.

   Contributed by: Perry W. Phillips Winchester, Va.

Comment by SMCIS BBS SYSOP Buggs Bugnon

   We do indeed need the fellowship, but we must be very careful not to
use the word fellowship when we are really socialshipping.