Principle Fellowship

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." - 1 John 1:3

Simply being in a room with a large group of people does not automatically imply fellowship.  On the other hand, being all by yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot have fellowship.  You can be surrounded by a multitude of people and feel completely alone, and you can be completely alone yet in perfect fellowship.  How is that?  It is because “truly our fellowship is with the Father.”

The Mississippi river is perhaps the most famous river in the United States.  The mighty stream flows from its origin point near Lake Superior down through the heart of corn country, past Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Mississippi until finally dumping out in the Gulf of Mexico.  This beautiful river carrying millions of gallons of precious water provides natural habitat, transportation, recreation, and commerce for both man and beast.  It bends and breaks off producing a multitude of streams, creeks, and tributaries; each one a life carrying force.  It is a natural example of a much larger spiritual truth. 

Like the Mississippi, fellowship with the Father produces a down current that invades all walks of life.  All other fellowship we experience is subsequent to this principle fellowship.  All fellowship and all life have an origin point, and that is the Father and His Son.  Therefore, promoting fellowship with the Father and His Son will naturally promote fellowship with your kindred in Christ.  Not only that, it will provide a bellows that pumps soul winning love into your spiritual life.  A healthy relationship with God keeps you close to the heart of God, and by course it will produce Godly love in you that will flow towards one another.  Often fellowship is defined as simply spending some quality time with those of whom you share common ground with; but in fact, you can be immersed in a social environment yet feel completely disconnected.  Though you are amidst a people you have known your whole life you feel alone, insecure, unwanted, and discontent.  What’s the matter?  The fellowship is disconnected, but not peer to peer, it is disconnected at the source.  The other extreme is that you find great comfort in your typical social environment. “Worship services” are more about who’s there than whether God is there.  Once that culture is in place every person who is not like you becomes a threat to fellowship.  Furthermore, any culture that is not filled with the social you have come to depend on becomes a threat as well.  It is not long until all you have is false social fellowship, and when that stops; you will fight and bleed for it because it feels like your only salvation (that is what Satan would have you believe).  The devil wants to pollute the fellowship at the main source, and if he needs to take a river and estuary to get there he will, because pollution at the principle fellowship will pollute the whole fellowship, just like pollution at the birthplace of the Mississippi would pollute the entire Mississippi.  Satan knows that principle fellowship with the Father has a miraculous trickle-down effect which will provide beneficial nutrients to all areas of life.  Therefore, it behooves us to keep our fellowship strong at the inception, focus on the true fellowship with the Father and let him provide, produce, and sustain the fellowship with both our brothers and sisters in Christ, and further strengthen our love for our fellow man.  Let him give to us the light and understanding to help save the lost.

In this time of crisis, the Christian church in America has faced a situation the likes of which many have never seen.  We have been forced into isolation, and the perceived “backbone” of the Christian church (worship services) has been taken.  While congregating is given to us by Biblical mandate, let us not forget that physical fellowship is secondary to the principle fellowship.  Congregational worship is not the backbone of God’s people, God is, and there is great value in sitting alone with God.