The Importance of Fellowship
Have you ever given thought to the importance of fellowship?
The importance of fellowship cannot be overstated.
It is one thing to get to know the Lord Jesus Christ on an individual basis while developing a closer personal relationship with Him, yet quite another to meet regularly with fellow Christians who share your love for the Lord.
Since all of us who belong to God’s family are endowed with different gifts from our creator, we all obtain insights from scripture on an individual basis that may not be given for others to discover during their private readings.
By coming together regularly to worship the Lord and read from the Bible, we have an opportunity to not only develop a closer friendship with God, but to also consider what others may have discovered from His word. We can then go back to read the passages in question another time and gain a new spiritual awareness of the messages He tries to convey to us through His parables.
If you doubt the importance of fellowship and the potential benefits of being around other believers, think for a moment about the days that our Lord spent on this earth. In what manner did He usually convey His message to the early church? How many people were usually present when He spoke?
When the Lord Jesus Christ first began His ministry, His aim was not to seek out and speak to individuals. He clearly had a mission to gather a group of like-minded believers to Him. Without exception, the apostles were called away from their old lives to follow the Lord. With each addition to the group, the opportunity for fellowship grew. Consider how Peter, Andrew, James and John were called:
Matthew 4:18-22 – And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him. And going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him.
Consider also how Matthew was called to follow Jesus:
Matthew 9:9 – And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him “Follow Me.” And he arose, and followed Him.
Notice that in both cases, there was no hesitation on the part of those that the Lord Jesus Christ was calling to Him. They immediately left what they were doing and followed Him. I dare say that if the Lord walked into my place of employment and asked me, I would also drop everything immediately just to be with Him.
Now, no Christian in their right mind would need the added benefit of fellowship in order to make the decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but we can rest assured that the apostles talked of their faith among themselves whenever the occasion allowed. I am certain that having the ability to express their fears and doubts among themselves as well as to the Lord provided them with a unique environment in which to grow stronger in their faith.
Growing stronger in our faith means learning to accept help from the Lord in whatever form He desires to provide. Therefore, I can support my claim of the importance of fellowship. If you regularly pass up opportunities to meet with other members of God’s family, you may inadvertently miss out on an answer to one of your problems or some kind of aid He has sent to you by using another believer as the vessel for the words you need to hear.
When the Lord sent out the twelve apostles to the nation of Israel, he gave them the following advice:
Matthew 10:18-20 – And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
So the apostles would be used as vessels for God to speak through in order to address the governors, kings and Gentiles. If God could accomplish this feat during the early days of the church and since He never changes, then He must surely be capable of the same feat today. This is why I submit to you that one of your fellow believers may have a message for you that comes directly from God Himself.
We may not always be conscious of the fact that God is speaking through us, but all believers have had those times when they have been speaking of the good news and have felt the words of their speech tumble effortlessly from their mouth. The conversation ends and we are amazed that we never faltered, nor omitted any relevant points. It is at these times today that the Lord speaks through us.
So by avoiding the practice of and denying the importance of fellowship, we may be mistakenly blocking off one of the channels that God has at His disposal for communication with us. As a Christian myself, I would prefer to avoid any practice or activity that lessens my chances of having closer ties to God and greater access to His advice for how to live here on His earth.
While living here on earth, we may be tempted to be selective when it comes to whom we will fellowship with. Have you ever erred by considering yourself too good to fellowship with believers of a lower worldly stature? What rules or regulations does your church have in place regarding a dress code, if any?
We know through scripture with whom the Lord chose to spend His ministry with while He walked among us in the flesh. The upper class of society even questioned His choice of friends and the Lord Jesus Christ answered them succinctly:
Matthew 10:10-13 – And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?” But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Here, the Lord beautifully tells the upper class of Israel that He eats with the publicans and sinners (the lower class of His day) because they recognize their sinful state and seek forgiveness for it. The Pharisees and Sadducees refused to recognize Jesus as the Son of God, and therefore also refused to recognize God in their midst. They stubbornly clung to the belief that they were saved due to having Abraham for their father and because of their adherence to the Law.
The Lord showed them their sin by pointing out that they only had love for each other and none for those who were labelled as lower class. The leaders of the day, because they did not consider themselves sinners, had no need of a physician. This is why our Lord chose to spend His time with the poor.
The importance of fellowship is such that no person who professes to love the Lord Jesus Christ and willingly confesses Him as their saviour should be excluded from any congregation. There is no respect of persons with the Lord and there should be none with us either. It is also unnecessary to add or subtract from the word in our bibles regarding what is necessary for fellowship with the congregation.
Though my wife and I could be considered dogmatic concerning the written word of God, it is the dogma of organized religion that keeps us from belonging to or attending any organized church congregation or building. We do understand the importance of fellowship, but we also recognize that it is very plainly stated in scripture that the only necessary ingredient for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ is a heartfelt profession of belief that He is the Son of God.
If you are convicted in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and you get down on your knees and ask Him to save you from your sins and to be your Saviour and King, He will do just that. Once you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, all that remains is to be publicly baptized in His name so that others may see your faith and be drawn to Him. Note that baptism is not a requirement, but is strongly suggested for new Christians because we should seek to emulate our Master, who was baptized Himself by John the Baptist.
If you doubt that profession of belief in Christ and full immersion baptism in His name are the only necessary ingredients for entry into God’s family, then consider the story of the eunuch whom Phillip baptized and remember that his baptism came out of fellowship:
Acts 8:26-39 – And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go down toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” And he said, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened He not his mouth: In His humiliation his judgement was taken away: and who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” And Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”
There can be no doubt after reading this story that the only things necessary for admission into the family of God are belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and baptism in His name. Any doctrines or ceremonies that any organized religions add to these two simple acts are unnecessary and are an affront to God. Given that we do not wish to offend God, how best can we uphold only His requirements for salvation while also not forsaking the importance of fellowship?
My wife Lyann and I take advantage of any opportunity for fellowship and for spreading the good news, but only as those opportunities present themselves. We do not and would not go door-to-door to preach Christ to the unconverted because we know that no man or woman comes to Christ unless the Father first draws him or her. It is up to God, not us to condition the minds of men.
Our opportunities for fellowship and spreading the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ’s soon return mostly come in the form of conversations with people we meet throughout the day during the regular course of our lives. It is only natural for the topic of faith to come up in some conversations and these are the times when we speak boldly of Christ. Since moving to Campbellton, New Brunswick where we are closer to some of our family, we have also started taking advantage of our proximity to our loved ones by having a bible study. Lyann’s mother suggested this and we heartily agreed.
We would welcome any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who also wished to attend our bible studies. Should we come across those who are interested, we will receive them with open arms.
We also recognize the importance of fellowship by holding only one celebration per year, in the Lord’s name. Though we do not celebrate any of the traditional holidays on the Gregorian calendar due to their pagan roots, we do take the time to celebrate a thanksgiving-type event in our home, which coincides with the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. We did make an exception since moving to Campbellton by holding a second celebration of the event for the family we had not seen in some time, but once per year is the norm.
We plan to hold this same dinner in our home here in Campbellton each year and will certainly be showing our understanding of the importance of fellowship by inviting those we come across who are less fortunate than ourselves, have nowhere else to go or no family around them, or have expressed an interest in getting to know the Lord better.
By not forsaking the practice of fellowship, we hope to gain a closer relationship with God and closer ties to the community in which we have chosen to put down roots. Despite some initial setbacks, we have made the decision to stay here. We are sure that God will honour our commitment and we are looking forward to getting to know our neighbours, both rich and poor. As all will be welcome at the marriage supper of the lamb, all are welcome here.
We understand the importance of fellowship and its help in our spiritual growth. Do you recognize the importance of fellowship? How do you fellowship? Leave a comment and let us know! 
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