The Joy of Fellowship

[Reginald Lee]

       The disciples knew Jesus through a close fellowship, 1 John 1:1-4. Out of their knowledge of God in Christ they were able to experience love. Out of this love they were compelled to reach out and fellowship with others. John was making known to all what he had seen and heard in the life of Jesus. John made it clear that true fellowship is centered on the truth of Jesus and it's full of Joy. 
       Truth is the bond of unity, has we share, we grow closer together in oneness. Truth is to build us up. We need one another in order to grow in faith. Spirit fill believers enjoy communicating the word one to another, "Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ," Ephesians 4:15. As we communicate in love we will experience unity. If we are going to grow it will be through the power of truth spoken in love.
       Loving others is evidence of being born again and having the Holy Spirit work in our lives. Love is evidence of true spiritual power. Jesus did not merely love his neighbor as himself, but he laid down his own life for others, John 13:34-35. It is the will of God that we love one another. True love can be seen by the deeds we do. To truly seek to enrich another through our love and concern we bear witness to the love of God. All of us have the potential for touching other lives for the cause of Christ.
       People outside the Church will never care how much we know about Christ until they see how much we care for each other, for Jesus has said "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another," John 13:35. The world is looking at the way the Church takes care of its own. The strongest witness to the power of God in the Church is no greater than our ability to love one another.
      Love cannot live under domination. God created man to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle of the field and not one another. God created man with the inner capacitance for love that finds its expression in fellowship. This why God said "it is not good for man to be along." Man could not have conversation with the fish of the sea. The Birds of the sky cannot communicate the joy of flight. The cattle of the field cannot speak of the glories of spring time. It was out of this loneliness that God created other human beings.
       The will of the flesh is working to cut us off from one another as well as God. The works of the flesh can be seen by the effects of sin. Sin is the cause of broken fellowship. The will of God unites us in fellowship under the control of love. The fruit of the flesh is sin but the fruit of the spirit is life. Let us therefore crucify the flesh and live in the power of the Spirit. Through the word of God we can experience the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:24-25, and the joy of fellowship.