"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.
