koinonia

The very word koinonia—fellowship—means that our lives are totally intertwined. Do you have fellowship, yes or no? Most people would say, “Yes,” if they’re a Christian. But the answer to the question is really, “No.” Because the Greek word means having intimate, complete engagement in the very deepest aspects of another person’s life. It doesn’t have anything to do with eating food—that’s a different thing. Be devoted to the apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to prayer and to the breaking of bread—food. That is something different. Fellowship has to do with my life belonging to yours. Your dreams are my dreams and my strengths are your strengths. My fears, you help me overcome, and my weaknesses, you absorb and cover me and carry me in.

If you and I don’t have a close enough relationship to the point that you don’t know what I’m afraid of, then you can’t help me very much and we don’t have fellowship. If I don’t know you well enough in your daily life—in your job, with your child-rearing, in your marriage—then I can’t help you very much. If I don’t know you well enough to know where your weaknesses are, then I can’t help you and we don’t have fellowship.

Let’s not throw around Holy words, Bible words, God’s words like “fellowship” loosely, okay? You don’t have fellowship if you don’t have koinonia, intimate relationship, where you can see it in their eyes when they are afraid. You can see it in their heart when they are stumbling.

You can see it in your child’s eyes, can’t you? How many parents know when their child is having a difficult time even though they’ve not said a word? They hang their head and walk around the house and they’re very quiet. You say to yourself, “That’s not my child. My child is not so very quiet like that. Something must have happened, and I need to find out what it is.”

That child never said a word, but you were able to know something happened because you love them and you know them. The child says, “Yes, my sister hurt my feelings.” How could you have known to even ask? They wouldn’t have told you about it, but because you love them and know them, you see in their eyes that something is wrong. “The eye is the lamp of the body.” When you really know someone you can see when there is something happening. When you really know someone you can see when there is something happening. All the mothers in the room are nodding, “Yes, yes.”

And some of the fathers are paying attention too. : ) The nature of Love is that we have an intimate, inner knowledge. That’s what the word koinonia means: intertwined lives. However, if we are meeting-based, even if it’s in a house, that does not mean we have fellowship. We have to go past that, brothers and sisters, and actually engage one another and look in the eyes. We look in “the lamp of the body,” and we know others in their daily life.

We know where they work and we know what their struggles are. We know some of their co-workers’ names because we’re praying with them for those people. We know when they have a conversation with a neighbor or someone that they work with. They call us up or come to our house after work and say, “You’ll never guess what happened today. Remember I told you about John, my co-worker? Well I talked to him about Jesus today, and he seemed to warm up to the conversation. Let’s pray for him now, okay?” So you drop to your knees together in the dirt. See how that’s a daily thing? It has nothing to do with meetings, does it? The meetings are all extra.

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Am reading and seeking to understand what it really means to have fellowship with other believers. I will admit some of what I am reading has been challenging to me because on some level I want to hold back...but then if I hold back from GOD or those HE gives me to fellowship with how can they know me, how can we function as HIS body, one to another growing and learning. If I hold on to my "me" stuff then I don't really allow others in and fellowships becomes impossible.

As I said I am seeking to know HIS heart and understand and honestly realizing I have so much to learn!

God bless
mj

I must consciously thank you Dear Sister for this lovely post. I've been blessed by it especially as it calls me back to redefine the word "fellowship" which I now use loosely. However I consider some part of it achievable only in ideal cases.

QUOTE: "Fellowship has to do with my life belonging to yours. Your dreams are my dreams and my strengths are your strengths. My fears, you help me overcome, and my weaknesses, you absorb and cover me and carry me in."

Due to d weakness inherent in d human nature and d tendency to lust, I think this should only be practiced within the confines of marriage.if I were married, am not sure I'd be well pleased to see my wife maintain such level of fellowship with another man in d name of brotherly love.

QUOTE: "If you and I don’t have a close enough relationship to the point that you don’t know what I’m afraid of, then you can’t help me very much and we don’t have fellowship."

With d time it costs to build friendship and trust, the above proposition means it'd take several months for christians to fellowship and this method at best would involve two or three persons per time and not practicable for large congregations.

QUOTE: "The very word koinonia—fellowship—means that our lives are totally intertwined...You don’t have fellowship if you don’t have koinonia, intimate relationship."

From my understanding, fellowship as is proposed in d New Testament was /is designed to be in the Holy Ghost(2Cor13:14).Apart from the Spirit, no true chritian fellowship can exist. Anyother form of interaction outside the Spirit would be mechanical in which participants would have to be trained to "actually engage one another and look in the eyes" and all that...

its possible to have very intimate fellowship with perfect strangers. Its also possible to have real real koinonia in a large congregations. Some of us have slipped into some church buildings and knew we had real fellowship though we knew no one there.

Watchman Nee once told a story of how he met a Japaneese in d West at a time when their both Nations were having a political face- they shook hands and there hearts connected. They may not have known about each other but for those moments they shared, they had real fellowshio.

. I am glad you were able to read what I shared and thank you for your comments:)

God bless
mj

Edited

Your post is actually a classic Dear Sister. When I said some part of it is only achievable in ideal cases, I thouGht "ideal" situations are never attenable,only "real" situations but I was wrong. REVIVAL TIMES ARE IDEAL TIMES! Your post and others like it are needed to prepare our minds for what to expect as we continue praying for Revival and as the Days of outbreak draw near.

I was battling with sleep and mosquitoes when I made those earlier comments. Had to wake up a number of times to check my spellings as I typed. Woke up moments ago and realized I wasn't thinking of Revival when I made those comments. Just finished reading few verses in the books of Acts and realized how true and achievable your comments were.

"Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostle's feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need" Acts 4:34-5.

QUOTE: "Fellowship has to do with my life belonging to yours. Your dreams are my dreams and my strengths are your strengths. My fears, you help me overcome, and my weaknesses, you absorb and cover me and carry me in.

If you and I don’t have a close enough relationship to the point that you don’t know what I’m afraid of, then you can’t help me very much and we don’t have fellowship "

How true these comments are in the light of Acts 4. Nothing less than it would explain the Apostolic Church. That Church numbered above three thousand and they were still able to achieve Acts4:34-5 level of fellowship. I feared dat those words may never be achieved because we've learnt to deal with our problems outside the church walls. In some cases, we are even encouraged by our song leaders and Pastors alike to leave our problems outside the Church building and just shout unto the LORD. Our Pastors are so uncomfortable to see gloomy faces and would do everything including cracking jokes just to make us smile.

But the Apostles worked up such smiles by allowing brethren to come out and tell the congregation their individual needs. I'm still amazed at how the atmosphere was so charged with love that people trusted other people as to share their private family needs before the the congregation with no one going out to gossip with it. Its really amazing.

This gives one more reason to pray for Revival. Only Revival can produce this level of interaction spontaneously. Any Church that wants to do that now will see herself doing it mechanically.

"Fellowship has to do with my life belonging to yours. Your dreams are my dreams and my strengths are your strengths. My fears, you help me overcome, and my weaknesses, you absorb and cover me and carry me in." This is real fellowship as defined by Acts 4. Whatever differs from this; to the extent of the difference, is no FELLOWSHIP!