THE BELIEVERS’ FELLOWSHIP

   “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer,” (Acts 2:42 NIV).

   The church builds up when the saints are constantly receiving edification, gaining perfection, and are being established in the faith. When these three vital items are lacking, the church is not building up. The first church which was the church in Jerusalem was devoted to four things that constituted their building. These are: the teaching of the apostles, fellowshipping, breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). In this way, the early believers worshiped the Lord. These four items are uniquely the ways by which all other churches can be edified, perfected, and established. In this booklet, we will consider three of the four ways the early believers worshiped the Lord for their upbuilding. These are: fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. The remaining one, which is, the teaching of the apostles is vividly discussed in chapter four of The Way of the Church – Volume One.

   Now let us continue and discourse on the three ways the early believers worship the Lord in three sections.

SECTION ONE:

FELLOWSHIP

   Among the four items which constitute the rapid building of the church, fellowship plays a key role. Before we can understand the leading role fellowship plays in the building up of the church, we must first know what fellowship is from the biblical point of view.

   The Greek word for fellowship is ‘koinonos’ which means joint participation, a gift jointly contributed, communication, and association. In a spiritual sense, fellowship can be defined as believers’ corporate participation of the riches of Christ as a result of sharing the spiritual values deposited in us with one another. Fellowship has its root in communication [which has to do with exhortation, admonishing, and teaching], and association [which also has to do with our meetings and the time we spend with one another]. These two items (which are, communication, and association) on which fellowship is anchored have no substitute.  No! There is none.  Anyone who isolates himself from the believers’ association and is cut off from the communication between the believers is not taking part in fellowship. Such a person has removed himself from the covering of grace and exposed himself to the enemy for destruction. It is highly dangerous if we do not take part in fellowship. Behold, the only ground a believer has to separate himself from contacting other believers and is pardonable in the sight of God is to strictly spend time with the Lord and seek His face for a while. Afterwards, he must again freely associate and communicate with the brethren. Besides this, there is no other ground. In fact, to genuinely separate ourselves and seek the face of God is not cutting ourselves off from the believers’ fellowship. Such a separation, if done with a good attitude and a pure motive will ultimately bring many blessings to the church at large.

   Apostle Paul separated Himself and sought the Lord for three whole years. He associated with the believers free-heartedly after those periods of separation were over (Galatian 1: 15 to 20). I hope we can all testify of the endless blessing God bestowed on the church through Apostle Paul as he separated himself oftentimes and spent much time seeking the presence of God. Likewise, the Israelites enjoyed God’s presence and knew His intentions as Moses often separated himself and spent enough time before God on the mountain and in the tabernacle. Like Paul, Moses also associated himself with his fellow Israelites and shared the precious words God told him with them. In other words, Moses constantly took part in fellowship after he spent enough time with God.

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