Introduction
As we looked at the 4 different aspects of biblical fellowship, we began with a discussion of the relationship that we have with other believers. Believers have a relationship with other believers whether or not they think about it or experience anything as a result of it. In fact, we could call it a legal matter. All believers have been adopted into the family of God. Believers are “sons of God.” Therefore, believers are brothers and sisters.
This relationship that all believers have with each other is true fellowship. This is objective truth. I mean by that, that it doesn’t matter whether or not we feel it – it is true. The objective truth of our relationship with each other is the basis for our subjective experience of fellowship. It is normal for a Christian to enjoy fellowship with other believers because he truly has a relationship with them. He has a common life with them, so it makes sense that he would enjoy what they have in common.
Unbelievers do not have that life in common, so they can enjoy no true fellowship with other believers. There is no foundation or basis for true fellowship among unbelievers.
Fellowship with God is the only foundation for fellowship with other people.
A clear understanding of fellowship with God is essential for a commitment to fellowship with other people. So, let’s take a look at our fellowship with God.
What does it mean to have fellowship with God? What is fellowship with God? There are 2 aspects to our fellowship with God.
1. Fellowship with God = Union with God
Just as ‘relationship’ and ‘partnership’ are the objective aspects of fellowship with other believers, so the believers ‘union with God’ is the basis for his ‘communion with God.’
All believers, objectively speaking, have fellowship with God. They are united to Christ. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, speaks of this relationship that each has with God. In 1.8, Paul assures them of the fact that they are sure to be kept blameless in the sight of God at the end of time. He wants to give them confidence. He wants them to know that God will certainly see them as blameless in His sight. Of course, Paul is not telling them that they will never sin before the end comes, but that God will see them as sinless at the end. How? It is because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. They may be sinning. They may not be enjoying that relationship with Christ, but if they are truly believers, they have a relationship with Christ. It is that objective relationship that Paul wants them to be confident in.
1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Salvation is a relationship with God; it is union with God; it is fellowship with God.
We are united to Christ. We are members of His body. That does not mean that we merely belong to Him. We do belong to Him, but our union with Him is much bigger than that. Your right hand is one of the members of your body. Your foot does not merely belong to you. It is part of you.
Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, gives instruction to husbands. He tells them to love their wives just as they love their own bodies. Then he says that Christ loves His bride (believers)…
Ephesians 5:30
because we are members of His body.
Likewise, we are partakers of Christ. Look at what the Apostle Peter says.
2 Peter 1:4
…He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
We actually share in the life of Christ. We share in His nature. To be in Christ means that old things have passed away and new things have come. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
We share in the body of Christ. The Church is one body with many members. We all share in Christ. Each of us shares in Christ. We each have relationship with Him. We each are united to Him.
The Apostle John talks about this relationship that we have with God. Look at 1 John with me.
1 John 1:3
what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The apostle wrote the letter so that people would understand who Christ is. He wanted them to have this relationship with Christ. He wanted them to be united to Christ. He says that the believer’s fellowship is with both the Father and with Jesus Christ. In order to have fellowship with each other, we have to have fellowship with Jesus Christ.
We could paraphrase John’s words like this:
We tell you about these things so that you can have a life in common with us; and indeed we have a life in common with the Father and with Jesus Christ.
Look down a few verses.
1 John 1:6-7
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Now John says, if we have this life in common with Christ, and live a life of sin – habitually sinning, we are lying about this relationship.
John teaches the same truth in John 15. There he talks about how the believer is united to Christ. Christ uses the figure of a vine and branches to teach this important truth. He says that there are some that profess to be united to Christ, but as time progresses, their neglect of remaining in Christ tells us that they never were truly in the vine. They were never truly producing fruit. They were never actually sharing in the life of Christ. They were powerless to produce fruit.
That is why the command is to abide in Christ. It is then that you prove that you are truly a disciple of Christ. No doubt, the listeners of Jesus message immediately remembered Judas. Judas had claimed to be a part of Christ. In the end he proved that he was never united to Christ. He proved to the world that he was never a true disciple of Christ. As a result he was ‘thrown away as a branch,’ he ‘dried up,’ he was then picked up, and was ‘cast…into the fire and [he] was burned’ (John 15.6).
Believers are united to Christ. They have a true relationship with Him. That union gives them the power to live a fruit-bearing life. This union can never be broken. This fellowship with God can never be broken.
Fellowship with God refers to our union with God. That is the basis for the experience of further fellowship with God.
2. Fellowship with God = Communion with God
If we have a union with Christ, then we can have communion with Christ. God wants to fellowship with us. He wants to commune with us. What a great truth!
Do you think about the wonderful truth - that God wants to have fellowship with you? It is true! From the beginning of Creation we see God’s desire to have fellowship with men.
Genesis 1.26 says that God created man in His own image. He created men to have fellowship with Him. In chapter 3, we see how man’s sin separated him from God. In 3.8, God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day seeking fellowship with men. But, man had sinned. He was now separated from God. That sin brought a separation, a break in the fellowship.
God promised in verse 15 to reverse the curse. He promised to provide redemption for mankind. The rest of Scripture tells us how He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to earth as a man. He lived a sinless life, died bearing the sin of the world, and was raised again. And those that are united to Him also died to their sin. They have been raised up with Him. They are united to Christ, and now they can have fellowship with God. God was worked hard to make a way for you to have fellowship with Him!
Do you think of your relationship with Him as just a free ride to heaven? Or do you enjoy the on-going fellowship that you can have with Him? Do you enjoy the communion with Him? That is how the Scripture pictures life in union with God.
Each day - the whole day - is to be lived with Him. Look at some examples from the Scriptures:
Isaiah 26:9a
At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently
Psalm 27:4
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.
Psalm 63:6
When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches
Psalm 5:3
In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
Psalm 25:5
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.
These passages and many more communicate to us that our lives should be lived in constant fellowship with Him. We are to be intimate with Him. Are you? Do you enjoy your relationship with Him? Sometimes we attempt to have fellowship with other believers (horizontal fellowship), but our on-going fellowship with God (fellowship with God = vertical fellowship) is almost nothing. Our fellowship with others will never be better than our fellowship with God. Our fellowship with God is the foundation for our fellowship with others. So, how do we fellowship with God? What does that mean?
Psalm 27:8
When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
Here we are commanded to seek God’s face. We are commanded to seek Him. What does that look like? David gives us a picture of it in Psalm 27. He prays to God. He asks God to allow him to see the beauty of the Lord. He wants to gaze at the beauty of God. He wants to admire God. He wants to make his home in the presence of God. He wants to commune with God in the presence of God.
We must listen to God continually. We listen to Him when we read His Word. Since with want to enjoy Him continually, we read and dwell on His Word continually.
Joshua 1:8
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
We must also talk to Him continually. How can we be intimate to Someone we don’t talk to. We are commanded to do so.
1 Thessalonians 5:17
pray without ceasing
We receive much from God. He gives to us materially and spiritually. We give back to Him financially. We give back to Him thanksgiving and praise. We give back to Him our love and obedience. We agree with Him, we share in common a right perspective on our sin, others’ sin, right goals for each day, etc. We share with God.
In order for believers to share with each other, they must have something to share. If we are not fellowshipping with God throughout each day, then what do we have to share with others? In order to build strong relationships with other believers we must have a strong foundation to build on. The foundation is our fellowship with God.
We have many resources in Christ. We are rich in Christ! Our bank account is large - no bank on earth can hold the riches! But if we ignore what is given to us in our relationship with Christ, we have nothing to give. We are poor without His riches. In horizontal fellowship, we give to others. If we are not enjoying our vertical fellowship (enjoying the resources/riches in Christ), what do we really have to give to others? So, we must remember that...
The foundation for our horizontal fellowship is our vertical fellowship.
Going even deeper, it is our union with Christ that is the foundation for our communion with Christ.
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Our union and communion with Christ, i.e. our fellowship with Christ, that allow us to have fellowship with other believers.
To be continually devoted to fellowship with other believers means that you must be continually devoted to intimacy with Christ because that is the foundation for your fellowship with others.
