8.2 Koinonia
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The word communion, in the New Testament, is the Greek koinonia, as is the word fellowship. The many other words koinonia is translated, including sharing, show the range of meaning found in the Greek word. Yet we have not used koinonia as an English word, preferring the back and forth between the Latin, communion, and the Saxon, fellowship.
I have stated that these three words, koinonia (as English), fellowship, and communion (and sharing) are completely interchangeable by their present usage. Yet synonyms do develop differing shades of meaning according to their usage. I intend to do that with these three.
Union – Communion – Expression. I have used this three-word phrase many times to denote our relationship of union with Christ. Union – Communion – Expression. One in union, two in communion, and one in expression. I am one with Christ in essence; we are one together in expression, yet inside of that, Jesus and I share wondrous communion as two best friends always together.
Now, we are transferring this exact same nature of symmorphy from our personal union with Christ to our life together as His Body. Thus we will use koinonia for the larger essence of our union together, communion for our intimacy with one another, and fellowship for the outward expressions of sharing.
Koinonia – Communion – Fellowship. Here is an example. Because we are one, members of one another (koinonia), drinking of the same Spirit, immersed together into the same body, we then eat meals together (outward fellowship). But in between these two, the fact of our immersion together and the outward expression of that fellowship, we enjoy a communion of heart and soul that can be known no other way.
Koinonia – Communion – Fellowship.
In this lesson, we want to expand just a bit on the larger umbrella term of koinonia, referring to the absolute and eternal fact that we are intrinsically poured into one another. Then we will discuss Communion followed by Fellowship.
Symmorphy Together. We are doing something, now, that has only been hinted at, something inherent in the phrase – members of one another. We are using the word koinonia to suggest that the same symmorphic relationship we each enjoy with Jesus, and inside of Jesus, with Father, this same symmorphy transfers directly and completely to us together.
We are part of each other, whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, whether we act on it or not. The problem is that you failed to read the fine print when you signed your first contract with God by asking Jesus into your heart. Here is part of the fine print.
Stuck with Me. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and have all been made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
You thought you wanted Jesus, but you got stuck with me. You thought you wanted union with Christ, but you got union with a bunch of squabbling other humans. Christ is and remains invisible, but humans are very much in your face. And that, of course, is why they get rid of Christ, then and now, He is too much like ourselves.
As One Another. But not us, for as we love Jesus, so we love one another, in exactly the same way. And we see Him as He is – as one another.
Symmorphosed together with one another. What does that mean? Consider this word. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body (1 Corinthians 11:28-29). It is evident from the context that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14 in order to explain what he meant by these words.
How We Think of Jesus. The Corinthian brethren were failing to recognize one another as Jesus Himself, nor themselves together as His physical body. In other words, it’s no good to say, “Jesus, Jesus,” without fully recognizing your brother and sister as that same Jesus to you. And the consequences of judgment Paul warns about are simply the fact that we are cutting ourselves off from knowing Jesus as He is when we fail to know Him as one another.
Everyone imagines what it would be like, how they would respond, if they saw Jesus face to face in His glory. Paul is saying to every nuance of those sentiments – Baloney! Our thoughts regarding all other Christians across this earth, and especially those nearby ARE our real thoughts concerning Jesus. – In actuality, most of us secretly despise Him.
Turning Away from Adam. Koinonia is what Adam rejected; koinonia is our rejection of Adam. And the truth is, it is this very refusal to see Jesus for real in and as one another, as all that our brother or sister IS, that has created the Nicene Church – Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or Deeper Truth –, and that has made us so weary of church. Yet we have been in the same boat.
Now, we present the negative because that is necessary in the way God has crafted our reality. The negative contrasts the real in order for us to see the full shape of its meaning. But we turn now from the negative to the full positive, our utter and complete symmorphy together with one another.
Symmorphy – Koinonia. Just as Paul used the prefix syn/sym to designate our symmorphy with Jesus, we in Him and He in us, so Paul used the word, koinonia, to designate that same reality we share with one another.
Now, we are NOT speaking of collectivism, of losing the individual by merging the individual into a group blob. In fact, our symmorphy together establishes the exact opposite, the honoring of the individual as Jesus Himself. But that is a topic for the next lesson. There is a larger sense, almost a “new age” sense by which we are intrinsically part of one another. There is no “individual” victory.
As – So I. The statement, “though none go with me, still I will follow,” sounds noble, and there are times in the press when it might be fitting, yet, in reality, it is mostly nonsense. As goes the Church, so go I, for we are part of one another.
Yet, when we say, “the Church” here, we are speaking of God’s firstfruits. Yet God’s firstfruits by their very nature, never leave one who belongs to Jesus out of their own symmorphy. At the same time, imaginary thoughts regarding “all Christians across the earth” (what the term ‘Catholic’ actually means) are not real.
God has given us the local church. As goes my local Church, my own Community of Christ, so go I, for we are part of one another.
Married. It is BECAUSE OF koinonia that we gather together regularly with other nearby believers in Jesus in specific contexts. We do not gather together in order to attain to koinonia. We gather together BECAUSE we know that we are already part of one another. And our purpose now is to know what we are. Yet knowing what we are is communion, the intimacy of koinonia.
We could say it this way – the marriage altar is koinonia, the marriage bed is communion, and the kids are fellowship. And the truth of the matter is, that is how God says it, from one end of the Bible to the other. But you and I got married the moment we asked Jesus into our hearts, we just haven’t known that we did.
Perfect Seasons. Now, you might be thinking, “But I’m by myself; I know of no one locally with whom I can gather together inside this same word of the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Here is our absolute. We rest utterly in Jesus living now as us through the seasons of our lives entirely as He wishes. Jesus does all things well.
This course is not meant to cast any shadow of insufficiency upon ourselves for any reason. We ARE complete in Christ. Our purpose is to set before our understanding all that God speaks regarding Christ our life, so that, as Jesus takes us into His next season for us, we might recognize Him in one another.
That next season, coming soon, is koinonia.