Tuesday
Tuesday
Fellowship
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
1 John 1:7
If the first mark of a living church is study, the second is fellowship, and today and tomorrow we will focus on this topic. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship” (Acts 2:42). This is the well-known Greek word koin
nia, which expresses our common Christian life, what we share as Christian believers. It bears witness to two complementary truths, namely what we share in and what we share out.
Firstly, koinnia expresses what we share in together, especially the grace of God. “Our fellowship,” wrote the apostle John, “is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3), and the apostle Paul added “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14). So authentic fellowship is trinitarian fellowship, our common participation in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many factors separate us—ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender, and age—but we are united in having the same heavenly Father, the same Savior and Lord, and the same indwelling Spirit. It is our common share in him and in his grace that makes us one.
Secondly, koinnia expresses what we share out together. Koinnia is the word Paul used to refer to the collection he was organizing among the Greek churches for the benefit of the poverty-stricken churches in Judea. And the adjective koinnikos means “generous.”
It is on this aspect of the word that Luke concentrates:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
Acts 2:44–45
These are very disturbing verses. We tend to jump over them rather quickly in order to avoid their challenge. We will face them tomorrow.
For further reading: Acts 4:32–35