What is Christian fellowship?
Nearly always, when speaking of fellowship in the New Testament, the underlying Greek word is ‘koinonia’. This word means a partnership, or literally, a participation with. Those who we are in fellowship with, we are in a partnership with. We have a participation in a common goal.
Who then are we in fellowship with? How far does it extend, and are there any limits imposed on it?
The two defining passages concerning who our fellowship is with are 1 Corinthians 1:9 and 1 John 1:3-7. The passage in Corinthians reads, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” and 1 John 1:3 is like it, “…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” We are called by the gospel, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, and when we respond to it, we are first and foremost brought into fellowship with the Father and the Son, and then also with all who are in the body of Christ. We are in partnership with all who have put on Christ, who are in partnership with the Father.
There are limiting factors on this fellowship, however. The passage from John goes on to say, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:5-7. If we are not walking according to Christ, we are no longer in fellowship with God and the church. But if we do walk in the light, then we are indeed in fellowship with them.
What then of those who teach a different doctrine concerning Christianity than what Scripture teaches? Are we in fellowship with those who teach that we are saved initially by praying the sinner’s prayer, for example? John writes, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds,” 2 John 9-11. Remember that our fellowship is first and foremost with God; if we are not in fellowship with Him, then there is no fellowship to be had. Those who do not abide, who do not live, in the doctrine taught by Christ through the writers of the New Testament, who either add or subtract teaching, or put a different meaning on it than what it says (remember the serpent with Eve), these do not have fellowship with God (for how can we say we are in partnership with God, if we teach differently than He does?). Therefore, not only do we not have fellowship with them (“For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?,” 2 Corinthians 6:14), but we become a participant with evil if we do accept them as brothers in Christ, and join hands with them.
Christian fellowship, being in fellowship with God, is the greatest relationship that we can have. We are a family in Christ, but we must walk in the light, and teach as he does, in order to be there, and remain there.