HOLE-HEARTED FELLOWSHIP

The Greek word koinonia, translated “fellowship”, carries a very strong sense of fellowship, and is greatly maligned by churches today.  Koinonia means: “a relationship between individuals which involves a common interest and a mutual, active participation in that interest and in each other.”  In the New Testament koinonia is translated “fellowship” and used to denote our fellowship with Jesus four times, our fellowship with God three times, our fellowship with other disciples four times and our fellowship with the Holy Spirit twice.  Koinonia is also translated “communion” twice in First Corinthians 10:16: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”  During communion we are fellowshipping with the blood and body of Christ: the relationship is between the assembled believers, the common interest is our relationship to our Savior, remembering His blood and His body, and we are mutually and actively participating in that interest, and sharing it with each other. 

In koinonia, we fellowship with God and we share that fellowship with other believers who are fellowshipping with God.  Fellowship actively engages both the physical and spiritual realm, but since contextually the common interest is always God, the core, the essence of fellowship is always spiritual.  When Luke says in Acts 2:48 “they continued steadfastly (i.e., to persist obstinately in) in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer”, he is not talking about some secular hobby, activity or interest for koinonia is always God centered.  True koinonia in the body of Christ will always have a vertical (God) and a horizontal (other believers) component.      

The twenty first century church equates size to both satisfying the great commission and evidence of God’s blessing... as if getting a lot of people into a building meant something. The dynamics of size are suffocating to true fellowship, leaving a hole in the heart of the church. Small groups... man’s creation, are substituted for koinonia in an attempt to appease man’s need for fellowship. But fellowship without the vertical component... without God centeredness is not fellowship at all and will not satisfy the hungry heart.  

KOINONIA