Wednesdays with Grace
Fellowship: Mutual Dependency
When my car begins to run low on gas, a gas pump symbol flashes on my car’s display to alert me that I need to refill my gas tank. Recently, after missing several weeks of church services and related activities because of illness and travel, my spiritual “gas tank” needed to be refilled. While I had no flashing gas tank symbol to warn me, I had a nagging feeling that things were just not as they should be: I was irritable and short tempered (more than usual), a little “blue,” and had a feeling of “disconnectedness.” I was spiritually “empty” because I had not been in fellowship with my church family.
Christians are spiritually connected and innately designed for shared life, shared love, shared purpose, shared truth, shared joy, and even shared sorrow. (Indeed, the word “fellowship” in our Bible comes from a Greek word meaning “to share,” with the concept of mutual dependency.) We depend upon one another through our mutual faith in the risen Christ. This is what Christian fellowship is all about. In fact, this is the Church. Christianity is not a private experience, and the Church is not a private experience. As John MacArthur states, “Christian fellowship is not an ideal we hope to realize, that we should realize. Rather, it is a reality created by God in which we participate.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his short book, Life Together, wrote, “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer, a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. How inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians.” Bonhoeffer continues, “Let him who has such a privilege thank God on his knees and declare it is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in fellowship with Christians.”
Why is Christian fellowship the source of “incomparable joy and strength?” Because in Christian fellowship, among other things, we encourage one another and incite one another to love and good works. As the author of Hebrew puts it: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together … but encouraging one another … .” Heb. 10:24-25.
Do you wish you had a warning light that alerted you to when your spiritual “gas tank“ was empty? You do. Each one of us does. It is the Holy Spirit. He is constantly working in you, transforming you. Listen to his call to Christian fellowship and experience the incomparable joy and strength that comes from Christian fellowship through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Carter