EDITORIAL | KAIROS GLOBAL | JULY 2019

Author: Dr Chackochan Njavallil

Fellowship with the Triune God

The dictionary meaning of the word “fellowship” is friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests. A few other synonyms are companionship, comradeship, camaraderie, or a group of people meeting to pursue a shared interest or aim.

For an ordinary person, Christian fellowship simply refers to a group of people coming together to share some common interests, possibly eating together and enjoying one another’s company or it can be referred to conversations among believers in seeking to know God’s will and understand spiritual matters.

But 1 John 1:3 says, ‘That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ’. Thus, the essence of fellowship is the communion with the triune God and Church, and fellowship in God’s eternal life. 

Real fellowship is the flow of the divine life within us as illustrated by the circulation of blood in our body. Consider that our physical life is in our blood and our blood is not stagnant. It’s continuously flowing and circulating. Every minute or so, our blood circulates throughout our entire body. It’s this normal circulation that keeps us physically healthy. Similarly, the fellowship of life is the flow of God’s life within us. Lord Jesus promised that whoever would believe in Him would have the flowing of His life, that is, His Spirit flowing within them (John 7:38-39a).

Real fellowship arises from our receiving Christ as the eternal life. The Gospel of John reveals Jesus Christ as the embodiment of the eternal, divine life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, even if he should die, shall live.” (John 11:25).

Real fellowship is both vertical and horizontal. 1 John 1: 3 says, “that you may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” That is the situation where 1 Corinthians 12:26 explains as “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

How can we experience this genuine divine fellowship? Spend a personal time with the Lord every day to strengthen our “vertical” fellowship with the Lord. Spend regular times each week with other believers to practice “horizontal” fellowship. Confess the sins and offenses so that neither our “vertical” fellowship with the Lord, nor our “horizontal” fellowship with your fellow believers is interrupted (1 John 1:7-9). In short, practice the pillars of the Jesus Youth movement to grow in fellowship.