How do you see other Christians, especially those that are outside your close circle of friends? Potential friends? Pew warmers? Maybe if you are needy, you see them as a potential source of help. If you are a giver, maybe you see them as someone who may need your help someday. Maybe you feel you have little in common.
How should you see them? --------------- as PARTNERS.
There is a Greek word in the Bible that has been getting some extra attention lately, you have probably heard some talk or teaching about the word “koinonia”. It is translated into our Bibles differently, depending upon usage. Usually it is translated as fellowship, but also as sharing, communion, and some others. The word fellowship gets tossed around today so much that it seems to be synonymous with socialization. If your friends from work get together you call it socializing, but if it is a church group doing the same thing, people call it fellowshipping. The word “koinonia” means more than friendship or companionship. Look up “fellowship” in an old dictionary, or “koinonia” in a Greek/English dictionary and you will find the primary meaning is “Partnership” Lets look at the familiar 2nd chapter of Acts, shortly after the Holy Spirit came to believers.
- Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship(koinonia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
It sounds to me like they were a little closer than just friends. Some people may say that this was a one-time thing, one of the miracles of the Spirit like the visible tongues of fire, and that we could never achieve this kind of unity today. Let’s look at a verse written decades later.
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship(koinonia) with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Somehow I don’t think we have achieved this level, this “perfect unity” that Paul speaks about. It seems unattainable.
---------------- Is it attainable? ------------ Jesus prayed for us to achieve it. Just before He was betrayed, he prayed for Himself, then His disciples, and then:
- John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
He gave us His glory that we may be as close to one another as He is close to God the Father. He is so close to the Father that we call it a mystery, we can’t understand it well enough to describe it, but we are to be this close to each other? Can we do this? HOW can we do this? I think it is safe to say that this kind of unity is impossible to achieve without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The treasures of all wisdom and knowledge are hidden where? In Christ. If I follow Christ and achieve these treasures, and you do too, then we will have the same wisdom and knowledge, and we will be “perfectly united in mind and thought.” To achieve this unity takes ALL of us:
- 1 Corinthians 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
As you can see, Spiritually, in the body of Christ, we are interdependent. Each of us needs ALL the others to be complete. Isn’t it a little easier to get along with someone when you know that you NEED him or her? We won’t all BE the same, because we have different spiritual gifts, but we are all equally needful to the body. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ, and will one day be presented to him. Will we be perfectly united, a beautiful bride without flaw; or will His bride be missing a few teeth, walking with a limp, needing a kidney transplant because we can’t get it together? It always seems easier for some than others, and God provides help for those that need it:
- (NKJV) Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
- (NIV) Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
To sum up all that: Through the guidance of those God sends to help us, we are to learn about and follow Christ, leaving behind our natural selves and growing into our spiritual selves until we find our place in a healthy body of Christ. For this spiritual body(the church) to be healthy, we as individuals need to be healthy spiritually.
- 1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship(koinonia) with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship(koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
This koinonia partnership is on a spiritual level, and I compare it to the worldly partnership of marriage. Now, before you argue that marriage is a spiritual partnership, let me remind you that the Bible tells us that a husband and wife become one flesh, not one spirit, and here Paul sees it as worldly:
- 1 Corinthians 7:32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.
In marriage we work together, each trying to make up for the other’s weaknesses, so that together we are stronger than each individually. Many have a healthy, strong partnership, even among non-Christians. If you still insist that your marriage is a spiritual partnership, good for you, mine is, too. You are probably married to another committed Christian, and you have experienced koinonia with them. Now, let’s keep going until we can recognize this same spiritual partnership with ALL Christians. We need to focus on what we have in common, but we can’t ignore our differences. If we have differences in belief, we need to study until we find truth together, then we have unity in that matter. Even if the difference is on a subject that God has not yet revealed, such as when the rapture will occur, we can agree that it has not yet been revealed!
To sum it all up, we can see that God’s plan is for us to be much more united than we are, and we need to do two things to get there.
First, we need to recognize that we all need each other, and second, we all come to one mind by not following one another, but by following Christ.