Atonement And Fellowship 4/8

“Get Together” in the Village (Photo credit: Tony Fischer Photography)

The creation of the one body was a direct result of Jesus his death. The Greek word for “fellowship“, koinonia, is used outside the New Testament to refer to peoples’ joint sharing of a common property. We are “in fellowship” with each other by reason of our relation to a greater whole in which we have a part. And that ‘property’, the greater whole, is the person and work of the Lord Jesus – for our fellowship is “in him”. This background of the word shows that it’s inappropriate to claim to have ‘withdrawn fellowship’ from anyone who is in Christ. They are joint sharers in Christ just as much as we are – so we cannot tell them that they don’t share koinonia with us. To say that is to judge either them or ourselves to be not sharing in Christ – and according to the Lord’s plain teaching, any such judgement will lead to our condemnation. It is the Lord’s body, his work, and he invites who he wishes to have koinonia in him. It’s not for us to claim that we have withdrawn fellowship from anyone who has koinonia in him.

Already in the first century  there were disturbing reports of fighting among followers of Christ. Like it happens so much in the world of humans it turned about persons, the way certain persons talked or got people behind them and about power. Paul, who had heard about the disputes asked the Corinthians if the Messiah had been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own?.

“10  Now I beg of you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Yahshua the Messiah, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you are perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now this I say, that every one of you said, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of the Messiah. 13 Is the Messiah divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14  I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; 15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name.” (1 Corinthians 1:10-15 KJBPNV)

Those Jesus died to redeem should be undivided. We have one Saviour, through one salvation act, and therefore we must be one. The atonement and fellowship are so linked.

Christians coming together in fellowship for a Family Bibleschool

The real Christians are those who are willing to try to understand Jesus his teachings and to follow it up.  It are those who do not mind taking distance from the world and to be considered death for the world.
Those who consider themselves Christian should become as brothers and sisters of each other. Together they should start to live in fellowship with God and with others having the same faith. They should gather with other believers, learning to live happily together and worshipping together, so that they can praise God and get strength and help from one another. It was how all New Testament believers accepted the faith and became members of God’s family and that is still the only way to begin a new life with God and make a fresh start in life.
Unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest, so Christians do not love their own life but hate their life in this world and will keep it safe right on into eternal life! All of us should want to be servants of each other. Together we serve Jesus, Jeshua who we follow.

Those who want to follow Christ Jesus should be careful not to fall in the trap to become more a part of a group of people instead of being part of the Body of Christ. Coming together as saved people should be without any chains. Each person coming together, men and women, having been created with freewill, should also be there out of free will, wanting to do the will of God and not as such the will of a group of people or of a certain denomination.  Each person gathering or being part of the congregation has received the ability to choose whether to serve God or serve himself. Adam chose to disobey God and brought servitude to sin and death on his posterity. Everyone chooses to serve themselves. In serving themselves they break God’s commandments. This is called sin. The penalty for sin is death.

Coming together we should know that we have received something extremely good which this world can not give but which is also  unearned and undeserved. Making fellowship is also making a form of gratitude for that grace, showing our willingness to be together under the leadership of Christ Jesus, the cornerstone of the Church of God. Coming together there should be the preparedness to have salvation to be worked out in fear and trembling, together, helping each other to reach the goal. (Philippians 2:12)

Together we should help each other to live a new life by the commandments of Christ. Together we should seek the kingdom of God which is to come when Christ returns. Until that return we do have to make the best of our lives. As long as it will take we shall have to be in this world but not of it. In the mean time we should give each other ‘agape’ which means ‘love’ that is divorced from emotion. It is something more than just friendship or desiring love. It is a spiritual love we should demonstrate for everybody who is willing to repent, become baptised and become part of the community and part of the Body of Christ. The Agape or brotherly love for each-other also brings in the ‘charity’ or the love that God requires individuals in Christ to show to their fellow men, including those with whom there can be no emotional bond. As such our love and desire to gather should not restrict itself to our own small community but to all  people around our community or parish.

Part of our charitable action should be the going out and preaching the Word of God and the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. In coming together, showing others our unity we should already present a proof of our union with Christ and with God. In our gathering and having fellowship with each other in peace others should see in us the love of God amongst us. In union the community of believers should not be willing to follow the rules of churches in the first place, but following the commandment, that they love one another and are willing to share everything with each other as a workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

“This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 KJBPNV)

“For we are his workmanship, created in the Messiah Yahshua unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 KJBPNV)

“This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.” (Titus 3:8 KJBPNV)

Our willingness to share the love for God is important for our own salvation, because we shall be judged on how we have shown the love of God to others.

“And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40 KJBPNV)

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Preceding:

Atonement And Fellowship 1/8

Atonement And Fellowship 2/8

Atonement And Fellowship 3/8

Continued on: Atonement And Fellowship 5/8

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Please find also to read:

1. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
2. The true hope of eternal life!
3. Is it alright to become a member of a non-denominational Christian fellowship, who follow the Bible teachings?
4. How do we become sanctified?
5. What is grace?
6. What is the true basis of salvation?
7. Why should Christians attend church when it doesn’t seem to help anyone and the church isn’t getting anywhere?
8. Parts of the body of Christ
9. Breathing and growing with no heir
10. God loving people justified
11. United people under Christ
12. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
13. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
14. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
15. What is freedom in Christ?
16. Choices
17. Always a choice
18. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
19. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses
20. To be chained by love for another one
21. No man is free who is not master of himself
22. Fear and protection
23. Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
24. Choose you this day whom ye will serve
25. It is a free will choice
26. For those who make other choices
27. Your life the sum total of all your choices
28. Answering a fool according to his folly
29. You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone
30. Choose you this day whom ye will serve
31. Christianity is a love affair
32. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
33. What Jesus did: First things first
34. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
35. The Greatest of These is Love
36. The task given to us to love each other
37. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
38. God demonstrates his own love
39. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
40. Unarmed truth and unconditional love
41. Unconditional love
42. The Spirit of God imparts love,inspires hope, and gives liberty
43. No fear in love
44. When we love we do not need laws
45. Love envieth not
46. Love turns one person into two; and two into one
47. Love is like playing the piano
48. Love will cure more sins than condemnation
49. If we love one another, God lives in us
50. Spread love everywhere you go
51. Love and cultivate that which is pure
52. Blessed are those who freely give
53. Those who make peace should plant peace like a seed
54. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience
55. Should charity be limited to “our own”?
56. Effective personal preaching.

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Related articles

• March 13 (bookministryorg.wordpress.com)
  Scripture makes it very clear to us, that we are called into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. This is not His sufferings which were atonement for sin; there is never any atonement about our sufferings. But leaving that aspect out, it is quite clear in the Word that we are called into the fellowship of His sufferings. The sufferings of Christ are a gift to His people. The Apostle Paul says: “To you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf” (Philippians 1:29).
• The Need for Atonement (smitharmorbearers.wordpress.com)
  Atonement is the putting right of a wrong committed. In Christianity, it refers to the reconciliation of man to God through the work of Jesus Christ. There are a number of theories in biblical academia that attempt to explain atonement, but I choose the wisdom of CS Lewis, who said, “No explanation of the atonement is as relevant as the fact of the atonement.” (For the record, I subscribe to the penal substitution theory.) So we’re just going to thank the Lord for the fact of the atonement and move on.
• Koinonia (burnabyfamilychurch.wordpress.com)
  avid Pawson once described koinonia as ‘being so close to others at a social that you are actually eating the other person’s sandwich!’ Have you ever done this?
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  This is more than church membership, this is total identification, including with His suffering! They don’t teach that in the newcomers class.
  That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death     Philippians 3:10
  We all love fellowship at a certain level but are we prepared to go that far?
• A Koinonia Kind of Fellowship (natalieswan.wordpress.com)
  Koinonia in the body of Christ, is one in which believers come together with willing hearts to offer up their talents and gifts, and seek to serve God and one another.  In the fellowship of Koinonia, those involved share in the joys and pains of life together due to their common experiences, interests, and goals.  What makes this kind of bond inseparable is that it signifies being united with the Holy Spirit as it serves a higher purpose and it turn effects the members as a whole. We have been given much encouragement in the Word to come together with a common goal in order to benefit the Kingdom, rather than spending time focusing on the disruptions and divisions in our relationships that do not lead to growth or unity.
• What Sets Us Apart As Christians? (zillasnetworks.wordpress.com)
  God’s empowering presence
  the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” means
  God’s empowering presence:
  that the Spirit is the way God has come to us in the present age,
  to be with us, to indwell us—both corporately and individually—to fellowship with us, and to
  empower us for life in the present as we await the consummation [which is the return of Christ].
• Is Physical Healing included in the Atonement? (thoughtsofawretch.wordpress.com)
  Atonement is the action of making amends and erasing out transgressions, bringing forth  satisfaction of God’s perfect justice, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ reconciling man to God  the Father.[1] It’s through the atonement on the cross that Christ carried out the redemption for all of mankind. Now with the redemption of mankind that the atonement had brought, we are confronted with the question; does the atonement include physical healing?

  As we look at the atonement in the New Testament, we see Christ being the final and perfect sacrifice because before Christ, there was no mediator between man and God, therefore the Jews had to constantly perform sacrifices in order for their sins to be pardoned but were not fully atoned (Hebrews 10:1-14). The work of the atonement was necessary because man sinned in the beginning, thus ushering the way for the fall in Genesis 3, allowing sin to enter into the world. We deserved sin but God out of His love had a plan for redemption of mankind and it was through His Son, Jesus Christ. The work of the atonement itself is two-fold in that there is the complete work of the atonement bringing forth redemption and the final work of the atonement bringing forth full restoration. The complete work brings forth redemption of mankind to God the Father (Romans 8:12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:11-21) while the final work of the atonement comes through the second coming of Christ and Him restoring us to our former state (Acts 3:21; Revelation 7:16-17; 21:1-5).

• Fellowship (thoughtsoncob.wordpress.com)
  I love how the Blue Letter Bible describes koinonia as “joint participation”. This is how the New Testament describes fellowship! Paul, in Philippians 1, writes that the believers in Philippi were partners, or had joint participation, in the Gospel. They were participants together in proclaiming & living out the good news of Jesus. Through the right hand of fellowship, Paul & Barnabas were recognized as joint participants in the mission of Jesus with the early church leaders.
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  I am a firm believer that being committed to a mission with like-minded people will produce true fellowship & community. I have participated in many athletic teams both as a coach & player. When the entire team buys into a common mission (being the best team they can be, winning a championship, etc.) true fellowship happens. Everyone involved feels a part of something greater and they are willing to sacrifice anything for the good of their teammate and cause.

  Those early followers of Jesus were devoted to a joint participation in seeing lives transformed through the proclaiming of Jesus. They were in it together! So if their brother or sister in Jesus was in need then they were willing to sell whatever possessions they had to meet that need so their joint participant could continue making disciples. All of their earthly materials were viewed as the community’s.

• James Dobson (tarrynotministries.wordpress.com)
  ‘The matter of personal worth is not only the concern of those who lack it. In a real sense, the health of an entire society depends on the ease with which its individual members can gain personal acceptance. Thus, whenever the keys to self-esteem are seemingly out of reach for a large percentage of the people, as in twentieth-century America, then widespread ‘mental illness’, neuroticism, hatred, alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, and social disorder will certainly occur. Personal worth is not something humans are free to take or leave. We must have it, and when it is unattainable, everybody suffers.’ (p. 21)
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  If Dobson’s answer to man’s problems is increasing self-esteem, ‘love of self’, there is no room for the Biblical answer to man’s problems, the redemptive power of faith in Jesus Christ.

  Dobson’s syncretization of pop psychology into his Christian theology is a dangerous road that leads one further away from God and closer to the adversary. The deeper one delves into the psyche, the less one depends upon prayer, Bible study and fellowship, the three points upon which one builds and maintains a strong discipleship. Our Saviour promises to give us peace and joy, but only if we submit to Him. To admit that without Him, we are lost, full of fear, angst and doubt. With Him we are freed of these limitations. No amount of introspection and esteem building can replace a deep relationship with the Son of God.

• April 23 – Koinonia (phidevotion.wordpress.com)
  The Greek word koinonia, most frequently translated “fellowship,” is the best way to describe what a church ought to be. Koinonia or intimate fellowship in the church is based on a personal fellowship with God by individual believers. And so Koinonia with God only comes from a real, personal encounter with the living Christ and surrendering to Him as absolute Lord of life. This is the intimate love relationship that we talk about. God pursues that kind of relationship with you.