Christian Fellowship

REDEMPTION is the basis of all spiritual fellowship. As made nigh by the blood of Christ, and partakers of the Holy Ghost, we can enter into the holiest of all, and think, and act, according to God.
There can be no “communion” between a believer and an unbeliever. To be without Christ is to be alienated from’ God.
Fellowship implies partnership or equality; also mutual agreement. The Great Shepherd of the sheep was the “Fellow” of the Lord of Hosts; and Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.”
It is needful to know “that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,” to have fellowship with God, or fellowship with those who are begotten of Him. The Apostle wrote about “the Word of Life” which he had seen and handled, that those he addressed might have fellowship with him; for, said he, “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
True Christian fellowship is the mutual exercise of faith and love of those who have fellowship with the Father, resulting from a common life in Christ, a common union to Christ, a common standing in Christ, as fellow-heirs and fellow-citizens, and a common relationship to God and to one another. The circle, therefore, is large enough to embrace all who have “fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ;” and such fellowship should be sought (1 John 1:3): anything short of this cannot strictly be termed Christian fellowship. As “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” we worship and serve together, and sympathize with one another, being members of “one body,” and having one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:4-6).
In the blessed Lord we see unbroken fellowship with God. He obeyed His Father’s commandments, and abode in His love. He set Jehovah always before Him; and prior to choosing His apostles, the transfiguration, &c. &c., we find Him in a mountain, or in a solitary place, a whole night in prayer. We have recorded, also, touching instances of His desire that His disciples should have fellowship with Him; and in this, as in everything else, He hath left us an example, that we should follow His steps. “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you” (John 15:15): and again, “What! could ye not watch with Me one hour?” It is precious also to see the Lord washing His disciples’ feet, that they might have “part” with Him; for, said He to Peter, “If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me” (John 13:8). Peter’s fellowship with Jesus would be hindered, if defilement of the feet were allowed: the Lord, however, knew the blessedness of fellowship, and stooped to wash His people’s feet to secure it to them; and the same Spirit animated His beloved servant afterward, as we see in the let Epistle of John:― “These things write I unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” How important it is to seek our brethren’s “fellowship with us,” because “our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ!”
Much is recorded in the holy Scriptures on the importance of Christian fellowship. The injunction not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but to exhort one another, stands remarkably at the head of the mention of most fearful apostacy; and follows the glorious announcement of “boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” (Heb. 10) The pride and selfishness of the human heart is sometimes, however, even among Christians, displayed in the selection of a solitary path, in which they keep both their adversities and comforts to themselves: but Luke warmness and spiritual poverty commonly result― “How can one be warm alone?” (Eccl. 4:11.) The sorrow, also, of such a path is often keenly felt, and is sometimes very perceptible to others― “Woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.” And falls, such must expect, for the Spirit of grace and truth having bound us together in “the bundle of life,” made us members of the “one body,” and therefore fellow-members gifted to edify one another, it is evident that to choose a path of independence of our brethren, is really to manifest independence of Christ. Happy those who in all things consult Him who is the Counsellor, and who often teaches us through our fellow members: ― “Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14).
It was this momentous subject that seemed specially to occupy the Lord just before His crucifixion. He commanded the disciples to love one another as He had loved them (John 13:34); and His prayer to the Father was most affecting on this point― “That they ALL may be ONE; as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21). After this, we see the presence and power of the Holy Ghost making the Church of God at Jerusalem so truly of one heart and of one soul, that no man called anything that he possessed his own, and multitudes believed that Jesus came out from God. How unselfish, how gracious, how opposite to the habits, pursuits, and thoughts of men is this heavenly unity! Believers were one in heart, and soul, and substance, because they were one in Christ. And I ask, Is there anything on earth so precious to God as this? Is not the fellowship of saints the great gospel testimony to the world? (John rill. 35.) Well might the sweet psalmist of Israel exclaim, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! “Good and pleasant indeed have we found a taste of it now and then, and often have we also proved the verity of another Scripture, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward, of their labor, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow” (Eccl. 4:9, 10).
May we, beloved, increasingly aim after personal fellowship with God, and more and more cultivate fellowship with our brethren, feeling how necessary every member of Christ is to us, and that “the body” is edified by that which “every joint supplieth.”