| CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE | June 2004 |
Fellowship
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“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” |
THE FULLY CONSECRATED children of God are privileged to realize the value and sacredness of this scripture. It was the Father who graciously brought us up “Out of the destroying pit, Out of the swampy mire, And set, upon a cliff, my feet, Making firm my steps: Then put he into my mouth a new song.” (Ps. 40:2,3, Rotherham Translation) Although at one time we were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others, … God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, … and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”—Eph. 2:3-6
Those who truly belong to Christ have been called into a sacred and greatly privileged fellowship with their Lord and Redeemer. The Scriptures say, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” (I Cor. 1:9) In verse twenty-six of the same chapter it is recorded, “Ye see your calling, brethren.” We understand the call to joint-heirship with Jesus, and have responded by our full consecration.
Following our complete surrender to do God’s will we receive the Holy Spirit, and are begotten, “not from corruptible, but from incorruptible seed, through the living and enduring Word of God.” (I Pet. 1:23, Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott) “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth” (James 1:18); having entered into sonship with God, we become “an heir of God through Christ.”—Gal. 4:7
IN CHRIST
According to the good pleasure of our Father’s will he has very graciously “made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” (Eph. 1:6,7) Our fellowship with Jesus is indeed sweet and precious to the extent that we are fully sanctified in him. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”—II Cor. 5:17
To maintain this sublime fellowship, it is necessary to cultivate a good fruitage of the Holy Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. (Gal. 5:22,23) Evidences of our love and devotion must be produced even as expressed by our Master in the parable of the vine. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [cleanseth] it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”—John 15:2
In this parable, we see Jesus as the true vine, and each of his fully consecrated followers as an individual branch in him. “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. … If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”—John 15:5,7,8
Our sacred and blessed fellowship in Christ Jesus is also beautifully illustrated in these words: “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized [immersed] into one body.” (I Cor. 12:12,13) Jesus is the Head, and the church, his body.—Eph. 1:22,23; 4:15; 5:23; I Cor. 12:27
No figure could teach us more convincingly that the true church is a part of the Christ. Its relationship to our Lord Jesus is very intimate, even as the relationship of the human body to the human head. Just as the various members of the human body serve one another in obedience to the head, so the various members of the true church serve one another in love, and in obedience to their Head, Christ Jesus.
HIS SUFFERINGS
Individually, we are to experience what the Apostle Paul has referred to as “the fellowship of his sufferings.” (Phil. 3:10) “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Rom. 8:17) In view of this wonderful heavenly inheritance set before us, the opportunity to walk in the narrow way of self-denial and self-sacrifice for the Truth’s sake is the grandest privilege ever offered to any creature.
It is still true today that whoever will faithfully witness to the Truth, and not shun to declare the whole counsel of God, will soon know something of the sufferings of Christ, and can say truly, “The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” (Ps. 69:9; Rom. 15:3) Our beloved Master said, after confronting Saul of Tarsus, “I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:16) I will test your desires, he says to us. “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”—Matt. 5:12; John 15:18
The justified and sanctified church, following closely in the footsteps of Jesus, has always been a light in the world. Its light has not always had as much influence as desired. Thus it was also with our Lord, who realized that all who were of the spirit of darkness hated him the more because their spirit of darkness was reproved by his spirit of light. All the light-bearers who follow in his footsteps must be sharers also of his persecution and suffering.
THE GOSPEL
We also have a blessed and joyful fellowship with other true members of the body of Christ in connection with the Gospel. The Apostle Paul indicated this saying, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.” (Phil. 1:3-5) Weymouth translates the fifth and twenty-seventh verses of this chapter, “I thank my God, I say, for your cooperation in spreading the good news, from the time it first came to you even until now.” “Only let the lives you live be worthy of the good news of the Christ, in order that, whether I come and see you or, being absent, only hear of you, I may know that you are standing fast in one spirit and with one mind, fighting shoulder to shoulder for the faith of the good news.”
Our Father would have us always realize and appreciate that it is his Word that is being unfolded to us. The Apostle Paul stressed this point saying, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.”—I Thess. 2:13
Those who have been called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light of Truth, and are faithful, rejoice in the knowledge that God’s Word is ‘truth’; that it is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (II Tim. 3:16) It is indeed a “lamp” to our feet, and a “light” to our path; and a means that God is using mightily in the completion of our sanctification.—Ps. 119:105
Our fellowship in the Gospel will of necessity also involve our proclaiming it in one way or another, in harmony with our Lord’s words. Jesus testified concerning himself that “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel” (Luke 4:18), so every true member of his body has come under the same anointing, and is authorized to preach the Gospel. Indeed, if we are filled with that Holy Spirit, we must preach, being impelled to render that service by a burning zeal, so typical of our Lord and Head—“The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”—Ps. 69:9; John 2:17
A DIVINE FAMILY
“Now are we the sons of God” by faith, hoping by God’s grace, and our continued faithfulness to him, to become “partakers of the divine nature.” (I John 3:2; II Pet. 1:4) Our Father in heaven, the great Divine, self-existing One, “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto” (I Tim. 6:16), desires a family of beings like unto his own glorious nature. He is immortal, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named.”—Eph. 1:20,21
Ere long this Divine family, Christ and his glorified church, will be complete beyond the veil, and will shed forth the light of the knowledge of the glory of God for all people. Such is our glorious hope. Could there be a fellowship more precious? Could love, even Divine love, reach to greater heights? Jesus, through the Revelator, exhorts, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.”—Rev. 2:10; 3:21
As prospective members of that glorified Divine family, fully consecrated to God, giving diligence to make this precious calling and election sure, we rejoice to testify that ‘truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.’
Additionally, we have a delightful fellowship with other members of the body of Christ, and say with the psalmist, “What is so good, or what so pleasant, as for brethren to dwell together? It is as ointment on the head, that ran down to the beard, even the beard of Aaron; that ran down to the fringe of his clothing. As the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the mountains of Sion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever.”—Ps. 133:1-3, Septuagint Translation
Here is a beautiful pen picture illustrating the anointing of the Holy Spirit; how it was all poured upon our Head (Christ Jesus) and must run down from him to each member of his body. The members of the church are the ‘brethren’ whose spirit impels them to ‘dwell together in unity.’ All who are one with the ‘head’ must be in sympathy with fellow members of his body, the church.
“The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you.” (I John 2:27) This holy anointing began to reach the body on the Day of Pentecost, and has flowed on down through the Gospel Age, even until today, anointing all who are truly baptized into Christ. When all the members shall have come into the body, and when the holy anointing shall have run down, figuratively speaking, ‘to the fringe of his clothing’ anointing every member, then will the completed Christ, Head and body, begin the great kingdom work of blessing mankind.