Unity in the Church
How do you see other Christians, especially those that are outside your close circle of friends? Potential friends? Pew warmers? Maybe if you are needy, you see them as a potential source of help. If you are a giver, maybe you see them as someone who may need your help someday. Maybe you feel you have little in common.
How should you see them? --------------- as PARTNERS!
There is a Greek word in the Bible that has been getting some extra attention lately, you have probably heard some talk or teaching about the word “koinonia”. It is translated into our Bibles differently, depending upon usage. Usually it is translated as fellowship, but also as sharing, communion, and some others. The word fellowship gets tossed around today so much that it seems to be synonymous with socialization. If your friends from work get together you call it socializing, but if it is a church group doing the same thing, people call it fellowshipping. The word “koinonia” means more than friendship or companionship. Look up “fellowship” in an old dictionary, or “koinonia” in a Greek/English dictionary and you will find the primary meaning is “Partnership” Lets look at the familiar 2nd chapter of Acts, shortly after the Holy Spirit came to believers.
---------------- Is it attainable? ------------ Jesus prayed for us to achieve it. Just before He was betrayed, he prayed for Himself, then His disciples, and then:
As you can see, Spiritually, in the body of Christ, we are interdependent. Each of us needs ALL the others to be complete. Isn’t it a little easier to get along with someone when you know that you NEED him or her? We won’t all BE the same, because we have different spiritual gifts, but we are all equally needful to the body. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ, and will one day be presented to him. Will we be perfectly united, a beautiful bride without flaw; or will His bride be missing a few teeth, walking with a limp, needing a kidney transplant because we can’t get it together? It always seems easier for some than others, and God provides help for those that need it:
To sum it all up, we can see that God’s plan is for us to be much more united than we are, and we need to do two things to get there.
First, we need to recognize that we all need each other, and second, we all come to one mind by not following one another, but by following Christ.
How should you see them? --------------- as PARTNERS!
There is a Greek word in the Bible that has been getting some extra attention lately, you have probably heard some talk or teaching about the word “koinonia”. It is translated into our Bibles differently, depending upon usage. Usually it is translated as fellowship, but also as sharing, communion, and some others. The word fellowship gets tossed around today so much that it seems to be synonymous with socialization. If your friends from work get together you call it socializing, but if it is a church group doing the same thing, people call it fellowshipping. The word “koinonia” means more than friendship or companionship. Look up “fellowship” in an old dictionary, or “koinonia” in a Greek/English dictionary and you will find the primary meaning is “Partnership” Lets look at the familiar 2nd chapter of Acts, shortly after the Holy Spirit came to believers.
- Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship(koinonia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship(koinonia) with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
---------------- Is it attainable? ------------ Jesus prayed for us to achieve it. Just before He was betrayed, he prayed for Himself, then His disciples, and then:
- John 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
As you can see, Spiritually, in the body of Christ, we are interdependent. Each of us needs ALL the others to be complete. Isn’t it a little easier to get along with someone when you know that you NEED him or her? We won’t all BE the same, because we have different spiritual gifts, but we are all equally needful to the body. As Christians, we are the bride of Christ, and will one day be presented to him. Will we be perfectly united, a beautiful bride without flaw; or will His bride be missing a few teeth, walking with a limp, needing a kidney transplant because we can’t get it together? It always seems easier for some than others, and God provides help for those that need it:
- (NKJV) Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
- (NIV) Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
- 1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship(koinonia) with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship(koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
- 1 Corinthians 7:32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.
To sum it all up, we can see that God’s plan is for us to be much more united than we are, and we need to do two things to get there.
First, we need to recognize that we all need each other, and second, we all come to one mind by not following one another, but by following Christ.