"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4. always in every prayer of mine for you making request with joy; 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now."
This is the beginning of a joyful letter from Paul to the church at Philippi. In this passage Paul expresses the joy that he wants to share with the Philippian Church. What was the cause of this joy? Paul expresses that his joy was caused by the fellowship that he had with the Philippian Church. The Greek word used for fellowship is from the root word for fellowship, koinonia. It means that people are in partnership with each other. Paul saw the Philippians as being in partnership with him. They were serving Christ together. This is not people just attending worship services together and after the final "amen" they all leave and go home. It is people who are serving God together. The church has been described as the "Church gathered" and the "church scattered." People in church a do not cease to be "church" when they are scattered. People in Christian fellowship do not say "amen" and go their own way. Christian fellowship is not just getting together, but spiritually being a part of each other's lives. Christians are joined together by prayer, worship, ministry to each other, and ministry to the world. We are partners in the most important enterprise in the world -Christian ministry to each other and to the world. People in a church are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are really a family. Furthermore we are joined together by the blood of Christ and by the love of Christ. We are a fellowship of people who have the Risen Christ as our reason for being together. We are to gather in worship with each other, by prayer for each other and by our Christian love for each other. That does not mean that we always agree with each other, but ideally in our love for each other we find ways to minister to each other and to the world. We are joined together by the joy that we have in Christ, by the joy of Christian fellowship. Amen! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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