What Fellowship Really Means If you’ve been part of a church community, you may have noticed how some words acquire “churchy” meanings—like “fellowship.” When is the last time you got together with your colleagues after work for “fellowship”? Never. When we overuse a word, it can lose its meaning. Our overuse of “fellowship” makes an important point in 1 John fall flat. “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.… If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:3, 6–7). We can determine the meaning of fellowship in this passage by examining it within a New Testament context. To do that, we have to find the Greek root word behind the English term. Using the esv English-Greek Reverse Interlinear, we find that the Greek word underlying “fellowship” is koinonia (κοινωνία). Fellowship is a word we may use too lightly in our churches. The variety of uses in the New Testament reveals that koinonia involves a deeper level of fellowship than an informal social gathering. The essential element of koinonia is participation—Christ is what connects us. We should value all that we hold in common as followers of Christ regardless of cultural or denominational differences. The focus is always on what believers have in common. This is the key to understanding koinonia in the New Testament. So the next time you come across “fellowship” used in a churchy way, remember that fellowship should focus on what we all have in common: new life in Jesus Christ.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:34:27 +0000
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