While looking into the subject of fellowship, there is no thought of trespassing on the truth of the believer’s individual responsibility to the Lord, which is so often brought before us in Scripture. On the contrary, there can be no doubt that true fellowship in the Spirit flows out of personal dependence on the Lord and felt obligation to His claims.
The Beginning
It is interesting to observe that when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, a new and distinct character of things was produced. Among others, we read of saints being in “fellowship.” This was not known before, because redemption had not been accomplished. At Pentecost believers were baptized into “one body.” People on earth were thus, by the gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, united to a Head in heaven forming one body. Christ was not ashamed to call them “brethren.” Now they were by the Holy Spirit united to Christ and to one another, in a divinely formed unity. All were partakers of resurrection-life in Christ, redeemed by the same blood, and formed into “one body” by “one Spirit.” There was now a basis and a power by which saints could act together and walk in fellowship, such as never could have been known before. Hence, we read that believers “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship” (Acts 2:4242And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)). This does not mean that their individual responsibility to the Lord was lessened, for, when Paul addressed the elders at Ephesus, he admonished them to “take heed to yourselves,” before telling them to care for others.
We have Christian fellowship as a result of the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the gift of eternal life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and being made members of one body. Its activities are spiritual. Fellowship is free and unfettered in its operation, but it gives no license to levity or pride. It is serious and gives no occasion to the flesh. It is a divinely wrought work.
Every believer is, by grace, called by God into this fellowship. “God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). Friendly relationship and associations even among Christians, which come short of this calling, should be guarded against. It is easy to have a fellowship of people connected by different motives and objects, which comes from common benevolent or philanthropic interests.
Expressing Fellowship
In partaking of the loaf and the cup at the Lord’s table, fellowship is particularly expressed. The cross brings before us the ground of fellowship; this is why the blood of Christ is mentioned first and then the body of Christ in this chapter (1 Cor. 10:16-21). The blood is the basis of this divine order of fellowship and is enjoyed by those who know the peace-speaking power of the blood, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. Hence we read, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” It is fellowship: “We bless.” Though our histories may be all different, we were all sinners, we all needed atonement, and now, through the accomplished work of Christ, all are set on the ground to worship and give thanksgiving to God. We thank Him together, we worship God in the Spirit, and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. The weak in faith and the strong, the elder and the younger, find here a common ground of fellowship and praise.
By the one loaf on the table, the character of our fellowship is set forth. It is the membership of one body. It is unlike anything that preceded the church or that will follow after it, for there is only “one body.” In breaking and eating the same loaf, we express our fellowship, or joint participation, in Him: “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one [loaf], and one body, for we are all partakers of that one [loaf]” (vss. 16-17). Thus every time we sit at the Lord’s table and so remember Him, we express both the ground and the character of a divinely-wrought fellowship, based upon an accomplished redemption. The principle of independency is the denial of this and results when people join together on some other ground than the practical acknowledgment of the one body and one Spirit.
The Unity of the Holy Spirit
We are not called on to make a unity, but to keep in practice what God has wrought. We are to endeavor to keep the Spirit’s unity in the bond of peace, with all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one another in love (Eph. 4:2424And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)). Nothing less than this could satisfy the heart of the Apostle, because he was assured it was the way by which the Spirit of God was working.
While the truth of our individual responsibility to the Lord cannot be too firmly held, yet nothing can be more contrary to the Lord’s mind than walking independently. It is opposed to keeping the Spirit’s unity, and it ignores the practical action of the one body and one Spirit. Independency is the refusal of the communion of saints which is wrought by the Holy Spirit.
Nor can the ruin of the church, looked at in its place of responsibility on earth with its almost endless divisions, be rightly pleaded as a reason for acting on the principle of isolation, much less for the formation of human associations not according to the Lord’s mind. God has given us the Holy Spirit and revealed in His word that He has formed a unity of all believers in Christ. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” This unity is as true as ever for all the members of the body of Christ, before the eye of God, though, as to its manifestation before men, where is it to be seen? Alas! The very opposite to this divine character is seen by the world today. Still, the principles of God for our guidance have not been changed because of man’s failure.
Endeavoring to Keep It
The injunction that we should with all lowliness be “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” has never been abrogated. It is simply a question of carrying out the will of God. If two Christians walk together “keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” these two persons would be carrying out the will of God, even if no other persons in the church are so doing. They would be not setting up the church again, nor reconstructing what has been practically broken in pieces. If walking in fellowship with the Spirit, they would humbly own that they were part of a church which was in a state of ruin. They would take the place of acknowledged weakness and cast themselves on the mercy and faithfulness of the Lord. They would be obedient to His Word, and they would stand for the true character of the church of God —“one body, and one Spirit.”
God is faithful. His Word is as true as ever, His Spirit abides, and the Lord Jesus is still in the midst of two or three, when gathered together to His name. He is Head of the body, the Sender of the Holy Spirit, the Son over His own house, and He is soon coming to take the whole church unto Himself.
Care for the Whole Body
Fellowship is not limited to the privileges and blessings we enjoy when assembled together; it extends itself into the various details of the state and circumstances of every member of the body. Thus, if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). We are all exhorted to be perfectly joined together in the same judgment, as also to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep,” to “bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” and that those “taught in the word should communicate to him that teacheth in all good things.” (See 1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 12:1515Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. (Romans 12:15); Gal. 6:2,62Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
6Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. (Galatians 6:6).)
When souls have really to do with the Lord, everything goes on well; without Him, nothing is right. May we seek only to please God! Where there is the knowledge of divine truth, a single eye and a subject will, there will be acting for His glory.
H. H. Snell, adapted