Common Fellowship

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What is community?

There’s a greek word here I want to talk about. I’ll put it on the screen.

κοινωνία

Most commonly gets translated as ‘fellowship’. It can also be translated as ‘common’, ‘communicate’, ‘communion’, or ‘contribution’.

The connotation of this root idea is that of sharing in something with someone.

In NT Times, they used it a few different ways apart from the bible. It referred to a business partnership, or a marriage. Sometimes, they also used the word to refer to the spirit of generous sharing in contrast to selfish acquisition. But these uses all had close connection to this root idea of sharing in something with someone.

And this word gets used in a bunch of places in the bible to refer to our relationship with God, or with other people.

Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42 NIV

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

and in fact, some verses get right to the point and translate this word as ‘sharing’

2 Corinthians 9:13 NIV

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

This phrase ‘in sharing’ is literally this word ‘koinonia’.

So why is this important?

Last week, we talked about the idea that one of the strongest priorities for a healthy church is pursuing community between ourselves. That whatever things we wanted to see change, or stay, to grow or shrink, that building relationships and doing life with each other was one of the bible’s most fundamental requirements. We offered a definition of ‘church’, and it was

A Community of Believers in Relationship with God and Each Other

But this week I want to expand on that a bit. I want to add to that idea of ‘relationship’.

My kids have watched the movie ‘Charlotte’s Web’ a couple times in the last few weeks. And one line in that movie really stuck out at me.

The pig, wilbur, he’s talking to one of the animals in the barn. And he says, ‘You guys are all friends, right?’ and the goose replies, ‘Oh sure, we’ve been here together our whole lives’. And Wilbur replies, ‘ I’m not sure that being together in the same place is the same as being friends’.

And the bible uses tons of images to describe the community of believers. It calls us a household, a family, or a body. And all of these ideas are not simply where you are located - they are about how you function together to support each other. It has nothing to do with proximity.

So let’s jump back to an earlier verse:

1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can all agree, this is the basis of the identity of the church - that God has called us into fellowship with his Son. But let’s expand this idea a bit. I think there’s a few value statements we can make here to express this idea.

God has called me to fully share myself and my life with His Son

So the first sense in this verse is this - that God hasn’t simply called us to association. He hasn’t given us a title, pat us on the head, and then said ‘right then! Off you go. Have fun’.

Our right to have fellowship with God, our right to have this ‘koinonia’ with God, it carries with it the expectations that we are contributing. That we are in common with God. That we are in communion with Him. If the same word can be used to express a business partnership or a marriage, how much more should we adopt those ideals for our connection with God?

And that’s not a new idea. 2 Corinthians 11:2

2 Corinthians 11:2 NIV

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

All through Revelation, the bible calls us the ‘bride’ of Christ. And this is an easy idea for us to understand. But the next isn’t as easy.

God has called me into a partnership of actively caring for other believers

And THIS is what we should really be meaning when we say ‘I go to church’. God places a HEAVY emphasis on this idea that true relationship with Him also involves sacrificially and actively taking care of other believers around us who have entered into that same fellowship with God. So, if we’re saying, we go to church,, what we’re expressing in the bible is this - ‘I actively love and grow closer to God, and I actively love and grow closer to the other believers around me’.

And in case you think I’m over emphasizing the place of communal participation - one day, somebody asked Jesus a question - ‘what is the most important thing I can do to follow God?’. And Jesus famously gave two answers:

Matthew 22:37–39 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I helped lead a virtual communion service at the manor last week. And I pointed out something about how we view this verse: we tend to think that jesus is saying ‘Make sure you wouldn’t do stuff to others that you wouldn’t do to yourself’. We treat this as a ‘don’t’ verse. But it’s a ‘do’ verse. God is telling us to DO things. Make sure you’re loving your neighbour. If you are hungry, you eat. If your neighbour is hungry, you feed. If you are cold, you put on a sweater. If your neighbour is cold, you give one.’ It’s not just a don’t. In fact, James says this:

James 2:14 NIV

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?

To the bible, a faith that doesn’t lead to direct action is dead. Saying ‘I love my neighbour as myself’ but not doing anything is empty. Likewise, saying ‘I go to church’ but have that simply mean ‘I come and attend’ - we’ve missed the mark of what God wants from us.

I’ve referenced this verse a LOT in terms of what it means to be a healthy church.

Acts 2:42–47 NIV

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

and in case you’re curious, that phrase ‘in common’ there - it’s ‘koina’, same root word as koinonia. Same connection.

Now, I want to remind you here. What are the things the believers did that resulted in people DAILY coming into a relationship with God?

They devoted themselves to learning, to actively helping each other, to breaking bread with each other, and to praying for and with each other.

Where’s the ‘they put together a killer kids ministry?’ Where is ‘Their worship team just nailed the right kind of music?’ Where is ‘they had an awesome building?’ (In fact, the number of properties the fellowship had DECREASED as there was need - as people kept selling them!)

They had different priorities than us - and they had different results than us

So let’s devote ourselves to this idea of an active, participation based fellowship. Let’s give our time and hearts to this idea of our church being a place where we are constantly caring about one another.

And I have a challenge for you here - Jesus called us to a different, supernaturally sustained kind of love than the world had.

Matthew 5:46-47

Matthew 5:46–47 NIV

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

When Jesus talked about love, he pointed out - ANYBODY can have a relationship with the people they get along with. Even the worst person on earth can find people to get along with.

The love that we preach, that we push, it causes us to be able to love, to serve, and to connect with people that we naturally wouldn’t. That we naturally couldn’t. That we have no common ground with - we have different perspectives, different desires, different ideas. So if we want to show the kind of supernatural love that God wants to see - we need to start loving on people other than our close friends in the church. Find new people to get to know. Find someone you haven’t connected with , and bless that person. Show each other and the world that our kind of love goes way beyond what we could pull off naturally - because it’s supernatural.

This week’s question isn’t a question - it’s a request. ‘Get to know each other.’ Let’s just chat in the box. Say hello - even if you wouldn’t naturally - and just get chatting.