8.4 Fellowship
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The life was manifested, and we… declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— …that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. …that your joy may be full (1 John 1:2-4 – condensed). Now, we have established that in any of these koinonia verses, fellowship, communion, sharing, etc., the words are complete interchangeable. Yet we will use the choices of the Bible translators to share our discovery of union together.
In this lesson, I want to maintain the practical thinking of the gathering together of 50-75 people into a Community of Christ. And remember, we are speaking of friendship as the protected heart of every gathering together.
Practical Expressions. And thus this lesson is on the practical expressions through which we walk as friends together, friends of God and friends of one another, Father Himself utterly inside our mix together. And we do NOT build anything we do together upon friendship, but around friendship, to protect it. Later in the course we will look at the foundation upon which we do build.
Fellowship is found in sharing together all the actions of daily living. In an earlier Symmorphy text, we outlined three arenas of fellowship, the fellowship of battle, the fellowship of work, and the fellowship of marriage. All three of these are part of the daily life of the community.
A Difficult Transition. The first purpose of all actions together taking place inside the daily life of a community is the fellowship of friendship. The goal of the job always comes second.
This transition was very hard for me. In my focus on construction, getting the job done was my primary purpose for many years. I was in my mid-thirties, having lived in community for around fifteen years, before I began to realize that doing it together might be more important than “getting it done.” This is very hard for a working man, for all successful workers are successful because they “got the job done.” And other people are in that picture ONLY for that purpose.
Doing It Together. The friendship of Christ inside of Christian community came into my awareness only AFTER I had begun to value “doing it together” more than “getting it done.”
Now, I am speaking of men, because I am one. In this topic, only a woman would know how to apply this truth to other women. So I would say to you men, this is the hardest thing for you, this switch from valuing “getting it done” to valuing “doing it together.” When I think of my wife, I think that women might find this valuation more natural. And in the fellowship of spiritual warfare, my experience is that women have more determination and endurance than men.
Around, Not On. It is a fact of reality that to live requires labor. And if we don’t produce, we do without. It is also a fact of reality that valuing “doing it together” above “getting it done” means a lower level of productivity. Thus “doing it together” cannot eliminate “getting it done,” else we would starve. Neither do we build our community on “doing it together.” I have seen that practice in operation, and I have seen that it does not result in the knowledge of Christ.
Here is what the rule of “inhabiting the site” does for us. We build the necessary actions of life together, not ON “doing it together,” but around “doing it together,” to protect friendship.
The Wrong Foundation. In the community where I lived, the garden, which produced most of our food, was together. That is, the garden was considered an essential part of our corporateness. For that reason, no one was allowed to grow any vegetable crops in their own yard. At the same time, although there was a regular garden crew, yet in planting, in weeding, and in harvest, everyone in the community gathered for that work. Yet the foundation of this approach was Christ as the group, with no knowledge of Christ as one another.
I love gardening together, and gardening together would be a significant part of our life together. Yet if you grew some green beans for yourself, I would honor that as Christ as you. Our fellowship together is not the foundation of our life, but the protected heart.
I Require Real. Now, I realize that the distinction I am making might not be clear. Here is another way to look at it. I require real. I will NOT pretend to be healed.
Christ as me is the greatest freedom I have known. I do not have to pretend that I am producing “Christness” any longer. If there is to be any change in me at all, whether in my body, or in my emotions, or in my nature, that change MUST come naturally out from Christ in my heart. If it’s not, I want nothing to do with it.
It is the same in Community.
A Spontaneous Arising. Friendship CANNOT be forced. Friendship must be only the spontaneous arising of Christ in me joining together with the same spontaneous arising of Christ in you. Yet it comes out from Christ in our hearts, now we living as Christ. In other words, Jesus is real. Jesus real is not the foundation of God’s house. Jesus real is its protected Heart.
And so, doing it together cannot be forced. Work in community must get done. If you are running an RV Park, for instance, the needs of the guests MUST be met, regardless. Sometimes “doing it together” does not happen. HOW the needs are met, however, can either diminish or allow for fellowship.
Protecting Fellowship. What must happen, however, is that in all decision-making together regarding the actions of life and work together, the intention of all decisions must include the conscious and articulated means by which natural fellowship arising from Christ in our hearts will be protected. Protecting fellowship, the means of friendship, must become inherent and natural in our daily actions as we speak Christ as our life together.
We cannot display oneness by enforcing a community garden. Oneness is Christ with Christ, arising from the heart of each. What we are seeking for is the perfect union in ongoing expression of two seemingly opposing things – commitment and liberty.
Commitment and Liberty. Commitment AND liberty are inherent together in the foundation of Christ, in the structure of all that is the House of God. It’s not half commitment and half liberty, but ALL commitment and ALL liberty.
Thus the same relationship of symmorphy with God then exists in our life together as His dwelling place. I am utterly committed to God because God is utterly committed to me. I am utterly free in God because God is utterly free in me. Symmorphy is both, always, in all ways. This is the great mystery of sharing the same will with God. Koinonia works the same.
Friend with Friend. And so you have the foundation of our symmorphy with God, sharing the same will, utter commitment and utter freedom. And then you have the practical realities of daily life, that is the structure of His house, built in all ways upon that foundation. Yet everything in foundation and structure is set in place to protect the one thing that cannot be built – friendship, companionship, the fellowship of friends.
This next quote is from “Church” in The Two Gospels. – Christ, laughing together with Christ, friend with friend, one with one in the deepest of friendship, in overflowing and exuberant joy, over the bumbling silliness of being humans, that is, Christ as us. –
Two Walking Together. Here are two quotes from “Church by Father” in The Two Gospels.
– I am speaking of two walking together, heart with heart, in the highest honor and regard for one another, each one taking on one's self the pain of all the thoughtless actions of the other, yet each one knowing it is so, and honoring the other for such Father love. Where such a relationship exists, Jesus walks the earth. Those who possess such a relationship possess the wealth of the universe, those who do not are utterly poverty-stricken. –
Then – If one and one walk together heart with heart, then the whole Body is one. But if there are no one-with-one's, neither is there a Body. –
Best Friends. Then two quotes from The Feast of Tabernacles, the first from “Moses and Paul.”
– Is God your best friend? Best friends are buddies, equals in heart. Best friends like each other. Yes, love is what both of you rely on when you are back to back facing your enemies on all sides. “I have your back.” But best friends like each other when there is no “reason” to do so; best friends like to be together. –
– To be best friends, I must trust you implicitly. That means I must open myself up to you to allow you to enter into my heart and to make use of all that I am and possess as your own (Covenant). At the same time and in equal measure, I enter into your heart with the highest regard and respect. I KNOW that I am being highly honored by you that you would allow me to enter your heart and to make use of all that you are and possess as my own (Covenant). –
Defining Fellowship. Next, I want to bring in the definitions of fellowship.
Webster's 1926 – 1. State or relation of being a fellow or associate. 2. Partnership; alliance; membership in a society. 3. Companionship of persons on equal and friendly terms; familiar conversation, hence, friendliness; comradeship. 4. A state of being together; companionship; association; hence, a community of interest. 5. Any union or association; corporation; company; especially, a company of equals or friends. 7. Ecclesiastical: Communion; mutual relation between members or branches of the same church.
Fellowship as a verb: 1. To acknowledge as of good standing, or in communion according to standards of faith and practice; to admit to Christian fellowship. 2. To unite in fellowship; to accompany. 3. To join in fellowship; to be in communion.
A Company of Friends. (Do not be bothered by the “ecclesiastical” elements in the definitions, rather we apply all things to Christ our life.)
A company of friends – walking as a company of friends. Company – sharing the same bread together. Companions – those who share the same bread together. Friends gravitate towards doing things together.
Again, in all consideration of any structure in community, we do not build anything ON “doing it together.” Rather, we build all things with the intention of protecting the always spontaneous arising of friendship, that fellowship and trust might be free and natural.
Our Treasure. There are no greater riches than the sharing of each other’s lives inside the commitment together of Christian Community. Remember that “sharing” is one of the forms of koinonia. And koinonia is to the body of Christ, the Church, the same as symmorphy is with Jesus.
As you KNOW this sharing of one another’s lives, specific individuals in the local church, so you will know that you have arrived at what everyone else calls “heaven” or “the fullness of Christ.” To eliminate Church is to create the Gnosticism of a “someday heaven.”
Our treasure and our joy is now – in knowing one another inside the ongoing fellowship of working together, standing against accusation together, and sharing life together.