Biblical Fellowship: Vertically Rooted in Christ

The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The early church was devoted or committed to fellowship. In a couple of weeks we will specifically consider this text in Acts, but first let’s consider the concept of fellowship.

Fellowship Generally Defined

Connecting the root words. Like English, the Greek language uses root words with associated forms. For instance, the English language begins with run which leads to running or runner. Similarly, to better understand the meaning of the Greek term koinonia (fellowship), we must better understand the Greek root term koinoneo, which Friberg defines as “denoting common participation”[1] and its connection to koinos and koinonos. [2]

Jeffrey Kloha offers a helpful diagram to illustrate the nuances between the various forms. Central to the koinonia event[3] lies koinos, the thing that is shared together in common. The koinonos consists of those individuals who participate together in the koinonia event. Koinoneo with accompanying arrows, indicates the action of participating together.[4] “Koinonia is used in the NT to describe the entire event, the totality of all the elements in the diagram – it is the entire diagram… koinonia is, therefore, that event that occurs when all the elements are in place.”[5] The reverse as well holds true. Koinonia fails to exists if any elements are missing. Koinonia cannot occur with one participant. Koinonia cannot occur if no “thing in common” exists. Koinonia cannot occur if shared participants do not in reality share the “thing in common.” Koinonia exists only when co-participants share in a common thing. J. Y. Campbell addresses the erroneous tendency of interpreters to understand this family of terms as connoting the “association with another person or other persons” instead of “participation in something in which others also participate.”[6]

General definition. Cursory observations reveal koinonia offers no inherent theological or biblical nuance. The term koinonia simply connotes association, participation, and shared commonalities. Friberg defines koinonia as “a relationship characterized by sharing in common fellowship, participation.” [7] Julien Ogereau concludes documentary sources employ the term koinonia only once with a religious connotation.[8] Likely our present understanding of koinonia (fellowship) flows less from its original use and more from Paul’s NT use and a couple thousand years of theological reflection on Biblical concepts.[9] Therefore, authors and speakers throughout the first century would primarily have employed koinonia as a general term for “sharing in common” with no implications to a spiritual or theological meaning.

Fellowship Biblically Defined

On many occasions, biblical authors utilize koinonia in similar fashion to that of the colloquial Greek. James and John consider Peter to be their partner in business (Luke 5:10). As well, the early church shared all that they had in common (Acts 2:44). But, in Paul’s writings, the typical meaning shifts to be more theological and spiritual.[10] Paul uses koinonia in varied contexts.

Of the Son (1 Cor 1:9)

With the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:16-17)

Throughout two chapters outlining a collection made by the churches (2 Cor 8-9)

To the Spirit (2 Cor 13:13; Phil 2:1)

To the Gospel (Phil 1:5)

To faith (Phlm 6)

To sufferings and glory (Phil 3:10-11)

In each context the participants share something in common. They share a relationship with Christ or because of Christ. They share a work accomplished by the Spirit. They share a common acceptance of the gospel or faith. They share a common desire to assist other believers in the church in Jerusalem which manifested in the sharing of their finances and possessions.

Outside of Paul’s writings lies an additional rich theological statement concerning koinonia. The apostle John mentions the believers koinonia “is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). John continues beyond the vertical reality and acknowledges that koinonia must not remain theologically abstract but instead manifest itself in fellowship with others. John goes on to write in verses six and seven, “if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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 cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6–7). A believer’s relationship with Christ works itself out in their behavior and relationships with others.

Fellowship, horizontal and vertical.

Throughout the varied uses of fellowship in the NT, the NT authors reveal that fellowship exists within both a vertical and horizontal dimension. God’s design for salvation restores not only a believer’s vertical relationship with God, but also creates “horizontal relationships of loving friendship between human beings in his family.”[11] J.I. Packer acknowledges this two-dimensional aspect of biblical fellowship as he writes, “The horizontal plane of fellowship…presupposes the vertical for its very existence…. Fellowship with God, then, is the source from which fellowship among Christians springs: and fellowship with God is the end to which Christian fellowship is a means.”[12]

The absence of either dimension destroys biblical fellowship. People tend to perceive the vertical dimension (their relationship with God) as theological, abstract, or impractical yet perceive the horizontal (their relationship with others) as tangible, visible, and practical. As a result, far too often, believers mistake activity and social enterprise with biblical fellowship. Packer acknowledges this potential pitfall as he writes the following:

We often say that we have had fellowship when all we mean is that we have taken part in some Christian social enterprise of this sort. But we ought not to talk in such terms. The fact that we share social activities with other Christians does not of itself imply that we have fellowship with them. To say this is not, of course, to deny that there may be a place for these activities. Our point is simply that to equate these activities with fellowship, and fellowship with them, is an abuse of Christian language.[13]

Anthony Thiselton similarly states, “the use of fellowship in church circles may convey an impression quite foreign to Paul’s distinctive emphasis. He does not refer to a society or group of like-minded people, such as a Graeco-Roman societas.”[14]

Koinonia or biblical fellowship originates with the vertical restoration between God and his people through the redemptive work of Christ. All those who believe share this restorative experience and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, horizontally manifest biblical fellowship through a shared purpose and proclamation.

Biblical Fellowship, Vertically Rooted in Christ

Paul establishes the fundamental principle of biblical fellowship as he declares a believer’s fellowship primarily rest in “the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Within the first chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul outlines three realities for which he is thankful.

First, prior to confronting the church with egregious behavior, Paul thanks God that the presence of Christ has been confirmed among the believers (1 Cor 1:4-7a). “In every redeemed person there is evidence of the grace of God, and that brings forth Paul’s gratitude, both to God and for them.”[15]

Second, Paul thanks God for the certainty of the believer’s future glorification (1 Cor 1:7b-8). Paul appears to reveal the Corinthian believers as “eagerly awaiting”[16] (NAS, NLT, NIV, CSB) the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul thanks God for Jesus’ imminent return and that God will sustain the Corinthian believers walk as “solid…sure, certain” [17] and blameless until Jesus’ return.

Finally, Paul thanks God for his faithfulness as specifically exhibited in his calling of the Corinthian believers “into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor 1:9). In connection to the previous grounds for thanksgiving, “How can [Paul] be sure that they, of all people, will be found guiltless on that day? Because ‘God is faithful.’”[18] Similar to God’s faithfulness to his covenant people throughout the OT, God faithfully calls these Corinthian believers into the communal participation of Jesus Christ. Paul roots his certainty of this communal participation in God’s faithfulness, resulting in gratitude and thanksgiving.

God remains the subject of thanksgiving throughout all three areas, and Jesus Christ remains the means by which the believer experiences God’s grace and faithfulness. “Everything God has done, and will do, for the Corinthians is done expressly in ‘Jesus Christ our Lord.’”[19]

Implications for biblical fellowship. Even though, in this Corinthian text, Paul does not emphasize the fellowship believers share with one another, his recipients may accurately infer their position in Christ and their relationship with Christ carries ramifications in their relationships with one another. [20] Paul emphasized believers’ connection and fellowship with and in Christ, but in so doing, also implies that all believers in Christ also share fellowship with one another. [21]

Biblical fellowship originates with koinonia with the Son.[22] Believers tend to emphasize the horizontal relationships of koinonia with little thought to the Christ-centered origination. As a result, many individual believers and churches base their form of fellowship on something other than their common bond of being “in Christ” and “with Christ.”

Therefore, Paul emphasizes our fellowship with Christ and our shared relationship with the Father. Following that emphasis, he implies and elsewhere discusses our fellowship with others due our shared relationship with Christ.

Conclusion

The HERD. As we come near our conclusion, let me offer an illustration. Just recently I joined The HERD, a cycling group. Everyone in the group shares an interest in cycling, potentially even more specific – indoor cycling. The group offers daily online virtual cycling opportunities through Zwift, a virtual cycling app. Everyone involved has some sort of indoor virtual cycling set up. I typically go on one group ride a week, and when I do, I’m surrounded by virtual cyclists (500-800+) from all over the world – Japan, Australia, Germany, India – everywhere. Truly amazing! As well, I often join in on Discord, an online audio chat room. The HERD as well offers an internet present via a website and a Facebook group, in which all the members are able to chat about all things cycling and Zwift related.

The HERD has one practice that I have found particularly interesting and pertinent to our conversation. They don’t allow any discussion about anything other than cycling and Zwift (other than – apparently all cyclists really like their food and beer). On a couple of occasions, someone has brought up a topic not cycling related, and they have been immediately shut down. On one occasion, someone messaged an inappropriate joke to the group during a ride. They were immediately told to stop due to our group being a family friendly group. On another occasion, a HERD member, on Facebook, just broached the subject of Covid, and they were immediately told to stop because that is not what the group is about.

There is a singular focus within HERD. Everyone is interested in cycling. All other topics are set aside – politics, religious affiliation, cultural heritage, gender, appearance. Cycling alone takes center stage and singularly connects the group. If other topics were to take center stage, immediately people would leave. If the group started to argue about politics, likely a large percentage of the group would immediately leave. If the group started to argue about Covid precautions, a large percentage of the group would immediately leave.

Technically speaking, The HERD offers a secular yet healthy and successful example of fellowship – a cycling fellowship.

What about biblical fellowship within church? Let me connect this example to the church by means of a question. We have already established that Christ is to be that which every member of a church shares in common. However, what do churches actually share in common? Do churches always share Christ in common?

Churches sharing things in common other than Christ. Throughout my ministry, I have experienced and/or observed churches share things in common other than Christ. Most dramatically, one church shared a particular interest in a pyramid scheme/diet plan that consumed the church. If you were a member of the church, you practically had to join the business, otherwise you would quickly feel excluded from the group. That is a dramatic example, but other examples occur frequently. A church proclaims that Christ is the center of their church, but the uniting factor is a style of music. Maybe everyone in the church happens to be in the same generation (Millenials, Retirees, young families, etc.). A church in Michigan, Victory Bike Church, claims to be “for bikers, by bikers, and anyone who can identify with jeans, tattoos, and leather.”[23]

If we replace Christ as the singularly shared focus of our association, we fail to have biblical fellowship. We very well may have fellowship, but it will not be the biblical fellowship that Paul and John discuss in their epistles. If we add to Christ, making him no longer the singularly shared focus of our association, we fail to have biblical fellowship.

A problem. Unlike The HERD cycling group, our relationship with Christ impacts and touches on every area of our life. In a cycling group it is easy, for a moment in a day, to disconnect yourself from your political, religious, cultural, geographical realities and simply focus on cycling. However, our relationship with Christ touches on every area of our lives. Therefore, as the church comes together – a group who share Christ in common – most of the areas of our lives could arise in conversation. So, our conversations at times will be complicated. However, we should be purposeful in making sure that our fellowship with one another is only rooted in our shared connection with Christ and how our connection to Christ practically works itself out in our lives. Everything else must find some other appropriate outlet.

Anyone, who desires to focus on Christ, whatever their cultural heritage, their vocation in life, their gender, their age, their appearance, their political persuasions, their eschatological understandings, their Covid preferences, their hobbies – whatever – assuming they desire to focus on Christ; they should both be welcomed in our fellowship and feel welcomed in our fellowship.

[1] Friberg, Friberg, and Miller, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, 233.

[2] Jeffrey J Kloha, “Koinonia and Life Together in the New Testament,” Concordia J. 38.1 (2012): 24. The Greek connects both an adjective and a noun to the verb koinoneo. First, koinos, an adjective, connotes “the common thing in which one participates together with another.” Secondly, the noun, koinonos, indicates the participants who share something in common.

[3] Kloha, “Koinonia and Life Together in the New Testament,” 23. Kloha emphasizes κοινονια being an event word. “In contrast to words…which are static nouns, every example of κοινονια entails activity between and among actors…Every time it is used, it refers to an ‘event’ that includes specific people who are doing specific activities with specific things.”

[4] Kloha, “Koinonia and Life Together in the New Testament,” 26.

[5] Kloha, “Koinonia and Life Together in the New Testament,” 26.

[6] J. Y. Campbell, “ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑ and Its Cognates in the New Testament,” J. Biblic. Lit. 51.4 (1932): 353.

[7] Louw and Nida acknowledge koinonia as “an association involving close mutual relations and involvement.” The editors of the TDNT acknowledge the normal usage of koinonia in Greek society. Authors and speakers would use koinonia in the sharing of any common endeavor, daily business ventures, “enterprises, legal relations, and marriage,” as well as friendship and citizenship.

Timothy Friberg, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller, eds., Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), 233. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 445. Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 1985), 448..

[8] Julien M Ogereau, “A Survey of Κοινωνία and Its Cognates in Documentary Sources,” Novum Testam. 57.3 (2015): 290.

[9] Ogereau, “A Survey of Κοινωνία and Its Cognates in Documentary Sources,” 293.

[10] Paul’s unique usage leads Pheme Perkins to conclude koinonia was “not part of the special Johannine vocabulary,” and that John only used the term as developed by Paul’s earlier technical term for “Christian mission.” Thereby, Perkins and Colin Kruse conclude Paul’s writings to be the primary source material for any biblical or spiritual dimension to koinonia whereby the term is “employed to express participation in the gospel, in Christ, in the Spirit, and in the Eucharist” (Ogereau).

Pheme Perkins, “Koinōnia in 1 John 1:3-7: The Social Context of Division in the Johannine Letters,” Cathol. Biblic. Q. 45.4 (1983): 633. Colin G. Kruse, The Letters of John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W. B. Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 60. Ogereau, “A Survey of Κοινωνία and Its Cognates in Documentary Sources,” 276.

Peter Toon, “Fellowship,” in Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Pub Group, 1996), 256. “Here the normal meanings of the words are transformed in service of the kingdom of God and as they identify a sharing in the communion of the blessed and Holy Trinity.”

[11] Vaughan Roberts, True Friendship: Walking Shoulder to Shoulder (Leyland, England: 10Publishing, 2014), 16.

[12] J. I Packer, 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know (Tain, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2008), 185. Packer goes on to write, “It is, first, a sharing with our fellow believers the things that God has made known to us about Himself, in hope that we may thus help them to know Him better and so enrich their fellowship with Him…. Fellowship is, secondly, a seeking to share in what God has made known of Himself to others, as a means to finding strength, refreshment and instruction for one’s own soul” (187).

Jean Cadier, “Unity of the Church,” Interpretation 11.2 (1957): 171–72. Jean Cadier writes, “Vertically it unites the believers with Christ in a living relationship similar to that which, on earth, united the Son with the Father . . . Horizontally it unites the believers with each other because it brings them together in the very person of Christ.”

[13] Packer, 18 Words, 183.

[14] Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2013), 104.

[15] Gordon D Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1987), 37.

[16] Friberg, Friberg, and Miller, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, 62; William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000), 100. Some commentators question whether the Corinthian believers were eagerly waiting Christ’s return (Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 38-39; Garland, 1 Corinthians, 34-35). However, both Friberg and Bauer and Danker, in their lexicons, include the ideas of “eagerly awaiting” and patience. The actions of the Corinthian believers appropriately result in suspicion of eager anticipation. Therefore, Paul either addresses the few faithful believers in Corinth or offers this as a reminder of what they should be doing, for most certainly the Lord will return and hold them accountable.

[17] Ceslas Spicq and James Hendrickson Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 1:280.

[18] Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 44.

[19] Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 46.

[20] God has faithfully called the Corinthian believers into a vertical relationship in which these believers share a common participation both relationally with Christ but also positionally in Christ. “[I]n all likelihood this language is to be understood not only positionally, but also relationally. Believers are not only in Christ, and as such freed from the guilt of their sin, but are also in fellowship with Christ, and as such are privileged to commune with him through the Spirit” (Fee) Barrett also argues for both a “personal association” and a sharing “in the position of the exalted, eschatological Lord.”[20] Even though some commentators emphasize the horizontal relationship with other believers obtained through their connection in Christ, Fee concludes such an emphasis “doubtful in light of the soteriological use of ‘call.’” Therefore, Paul emphasizes how believers “are shareholders in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and in Christ’s sonship” rather than emphasizing “one another’s company” (Thiselton).

Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 45. C. K Barrett, The First Epistle to the Corinthians. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 39–40. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 45. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 104.

[21] Both Garland, in his translation, “common-union,” and Thiselton, in his translation, “communal participation,” imply the union with Christ results in connection with others. Mark Vasconcellos well summarizes Barrett’s intent when he writes, “the calling of the believer into koinonia with Christ calls one into the community constituted by Christ himself, so that being called into fellowship with the person is synonymous with being called into his very community.”

David E Garland, 1 Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 35. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 104. Thiselton translates it “communal participation” which he admits seems “to make heavy weather out of Gk. Κοινωνίαν.” Mark S. Vasconcellos, “The Determination of the Status of Biblical KOINONIA at All Nations Church” (Doctoral Project, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2015), 29.

[22] “Only through the koinonia with the Son can one reach up to a koinonia with the Father and with the brethren. Thus the call to koinonia in 1 Cor 1:9 becomes a good starting point in analysing the Pauline occurrences of koinonia.”

George Panikulam, “Koinōnia” in the New Testament: A Dynamic Expression of Christian Life (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979), 16.

[23] https://victorybikerchurch.org/about-us