Fellowship

The word fellowship appears in the Bible 17 times. 15 times in the New Testament alone. King James Version of course. Jesus taught by example that we should fellowship not only with God and His Son, but with one another. 1 John 1:3 "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ". John is telling us that not only do you need fellowship with each other, we need fellowship with God and Jesus Christ. But what is fellowship exactly?

I'm going to get into a bit of the technical aspects of the subject. Please bare with me, and please don't skip this section. It is at the core of what we as Christians are. The first known use of the word fellowship is unknown, but it is listed prior to the 12th century. The easiest definition of fellowship is companionship. Companionship is the good feeling you get when your around someone, or others. Another definition states "a company of equals or friends".

So now that we got that part out of the way, on to the really good stuff. Those who are reading this are most probably addicts, co-dependents, or friends/family. A lot of you might be familiar with a 12 step program of one kind or another. Anyone who has been to a good 12 step meeting will know the true meaning of fellowship. For those that don't know or have not been to one, I'll explain. Most meetings are only open to those who are addicts or those who are seeking relief. That means everyone in there is equal. Some could be on different steps, but we are all addicts and that will never change. The meeting is not run by some clinical Physiologist, but rather it is run by a fellow addict. We have all sinned in this area, and open to talk about anything. There is a section in the meeting when each person gets a chance to share about themselves, experiences, or troubles they are having. Everyone is completely open because we all know what they are going through. Or they might say something that rings true in our own lives. The best part is that only the person who is sharing can talk. Nobody is allowed to comment, argue, or try to help during the share. Then after the meeting, no matter how late it is, there are always people staying behind for fellowship. That is our time to converse with each other. Nobody has to stay for it, but people gladly do. You could talk about anything you want, but people talk about how they are doing with their addiction, exchanging phone numbers, offering help at any time day or night. This is what it truly means to have fellowship. There are people at the meetings who have different idealistics, different religions, different sexual orientations, but yet every one is combined by the one fact that we are addicts, and we can't do this alone. So when John says that we need to fellowship with each other and with God and Jesus Christ, these meetings fit the definition of the word completely. Is this how you fellowship?

Is this how your relationship with God and Jesus Christ is? Is this how your Church fellowships? How often do you go to Church and not talk to anyone about God, or about what God is doing in your life? If your an addict, have you told your elders, pastors, or anyone in the Church? And if you did, what became of it? Do you have any conversations with anyone from Church any other day besides Sunday? Or do you walk into Church, talk to a few people you know, worship, listen to the sermon, and try to beat the traffic jam on the way out the door. I would be willing to bet that most people can agree with most if not all of this.

I have sat in a Church sermon listening about how bad sin is, and as I look around I see all these people who look like their worst sin was lying to their boss or something. And here I am sitting there knowing that I had recently cheated on my wife, or looked at pornography, or tricked some girl I met online to send me naked pictures. How could Jesus possibly forgive me? Well he took a sinner as low as me, and took me into his arms and forgave me. There is not a sin that God has not seen or dealt with before. How can we look at ourselves and say that we are not worthy of forgiveness to the point that we won't ask for it? Because we don't know that there are others out there just like us. Churches all around the world have this problem. It could be a friend, a visitor sitting in the back, someone on the worship team, or possibly the pastor giving the sermon. Focus on the Family did a poll of pastors. They asked them to honestly say if they had looked at pornography in the last month. 30% of pastors said that they did. 30% of the men that we look up to for guidance, that we respect are hiding behind their own sins.

We need to bring fellowship back to our churches. We need to talk to each other, and really talk. Talk about your feelings, talk about your struggles, talk about your addiction. There needs to be some time where everyone can open up and share. Why should the pastor talk the whole time? Why can't there be a time after the sermon for people to talk about the sermon, or what is going on in their lives? The answer is that it would take up more time, and they would be afraid that they would lose members, and money. Once the Church is not afraid to fellowship with each other, they won't be afraid to fellowship outside the Church. It's great that the Church will give money to people to preach the word of God in other countries, but what about here. What about the country who takes God, the foundation of it's country, out of everything. What about the country who's message is tolerance? I agree that tolerance is necessary, but not to the point where I can't talk to people about God because I don't want to offend them. There is a good chance you will offend them. Most people don't come to God easily. Most people come to God when they have hit rock bottom, and nobody cares about them, and they cry out for God's love and mercy. So they get offended. Maybe you just planted a seed that will grow later. Who cares how they got to God, as long as they do. But we can't be the Christians we were called to be, if we can't even talk to those who are equal to us. People have fought and died for Christianity. Some for good and noble reasons, and others for arrogant reasons. Would you die for your faith? Would you give up your job for your faith? Would you give up your family for your faith? And if the answer is no, can you be the Christian that God has called us to be?