6 Marks of (real) Christian Fellowship

This Sunday’s message is about fellowship. (Or maybe next Sunday’s message, if we have too much snow!) Anyway, fellowship is essential for the life of every believer and every church. Why?

Here’s why…because you and I were created in God’s image which means we were created to live in community and fellowship with one another. Our relationship with God TOTALLY DEPENDS on our relationships with one another and our relationships with one another TOTALLY DEPEND on our relationship with God.

But our view of fellowship – true Christian fellowship or koinonia (Greek) – is often times limited to covered dish meals, being polite, and occasionally praying together.

True Christian fellowship is much deeper and much more meaningful than this. There are many characteristics of true Christian fellowship. Here are 6 that are key.

1.   Forgiveness – It all begins with forgiveness! If we want to be forgiven by God so that we can be in fellowship with him and with each other WE HAVE TO BE WILLING TO FORGIVE EACH OTHER. I’m not kidding! Check it out  Matthew 6:14-15.

2.   Acceptance - God totally accepts each one of us for who we are and we should accept one another the same way. For way too long churches have made acceptance conditional – we accept you if you dress like us, act like us, or whatever. Read Galatians 3:28.

3.   Encouragement – “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) This passage is awesome! One of the main reasons we gather for worship and meet to pray together each week is to encourage one another as believers! When we encourage someone we build them up spiritually!

4.   Service – Jesus was the model servant. He served us by giving his life for us. God has given each one of us different gifts and abilities to use to serve him. To be Jesus’ hands and feet on earth today we have to be willing to serve one another. Check out 1 Peter 4:10.

5.   Unity – Let me be really clear about this one – not only does God want us to get along with each other, but he wants us to agree with each other and to live with a spirit of unity and cooperation. Paul writes,  “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Corinthians 1:10) Fellowship doesn’t mean agreeing to disagree. It means agreeing that Scripture commands us to agree.

6.   Love – Jesus COMMANDS US TO LOVE EACH OTHER. Here’s the verse. It’s important here for us to realize that in the same way that Jesus’ love was not conditional – neither should ours be. Jesus commands us to love each other even when we don’t get along or don’t understand each other. Love is like a force-field that God places around those who seek authentic koinonia fellowship. When God’s love is present in us, God is present among us!

today’s thought

Today has been a very busy day…Whitney and I hosted a group of Guardians ad Litem for a Christmas drop-in. And since it wasn’t raining today I had to put up ALL OF THE OUTSIDE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS before the wet, rainy, snow blizzard comes tomorrow!

And yet through all of this I’ve had a few moments to think about Sunday’s message from Micah 5:1-4.

The main point of the message is that in this passage when Micah prophesies to Israel and Judah who are facing an all out assault by the Assyrians (which, concidentally, is never a good thing in the Bible!), he says that one day the Messiah will come and be their…get ready for this…Shepherd!

Shepherd? Shepherd? If I’m at war with another nation I think I’d like to have a WARRIOR-KING-LEADER! Not a shepherd!

After spending some time reflecting on this passage…I think shepherd is actually one of the most powerful images of Jesus that we could have. Just think about the spiritual implications of Jesus as our shepherd. It means…

• That Jesus is our provider. He provides for every need that you and I have…NO EXCEPTIONS!
• That Jesus protects us from evil. This doesn’t mean that nothing bad or even horrible will ever happen…but it does mean that through bad or horrible situations in life HE WILL PROTECT US!
• That we should seek to follow Him in every area of our life.
• That we can trust him in every area of our life.
• That we can count on Jesus to always lead us in the right direction. That’s pretty awesome just to know that Jesus, our shepherd, will always lead us in a direction that leads to life and life more abundant!

I think this idea of Jesus as the shepherd of our life is pretty deep when you really think about it.

Is Jesus the shepherd of your life?