I have been thinking recently about the idea of the community of faith. The whole concept of community and fellowship seem to have fallen into such disrepute in the church as of late and there is a desperate need to re-apprehend this reality. What was it that the apostles considered fellowship and how was that manifest in their midst. Was it merely a monthly potluck and a ice-cream social after a guest speaker, or was there some thing, more, something deeper which was intended.
Significant insight to this mystery is to be found in the First Epistle of the Apostle John the Beloved. The first four verses of the letter are such a beautiful look into the issues that were so important to this Father of the Church. If the first verses of his gospel were a basis of Christology (the theology of Christ), then the first verses of his epistle were a basis of ecclesiology (the theology of the church).
John begins with talking about the common testimony of this man Jesus. He describes the intimate relationship which they each possessed to this man. They had not merely received a garbled rumor, some third-hand, half-remembered explanation; they had experienced him, heard, touched, felt, and known him. Then John seems to switch streams, he segues into a statement about fellowship together, saying, “that which we have seen and heard (concerning this man Jesus who they had experienced) we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.”
The “so that” in this sentence is so crucial. At first is seems as if John is just writing a flowery statement about having intimacy with Christ, but here he makes it clear, no, he has actually been talking the whole time about the basis of relating to each other.
To the apostles, fellowship was not merely some abstract idea divorced from a concert reality. He is making it clear that his relationship with this people is not based on just some nice feelings or touching thoughts. They were in community with each other because they shared in a common testimony of this God-man Jesus, who they knew, heard, saw dead, buried and raised in power, who they experienced.
The thing about family is that it forces us into relationship. We cannot just disengage from family or ignore them. I think that was John’s point; that the church was this new family, the new humanity, and it was not based on bloodline and ancestry but on this man and what they believed about him and if we shared this common truth, this experience of a man, then we are family and no matter what we had to remain in relationship with each other.
If you believed in his testimony then there was nothing that could make you not a part of the family, and if you didn’t, then there was nothing you could do to be part of the family outside of that testimony. What held everyone together was this common testimony of his God-man.
And that was the beauty of fellowship, that it was based in this common testimony, the beauty of this one who was exalted above all others. Today then when we fellowship we do so based on this common story, not just what was done in history by this man, but how this one who was raised up to the right hand of the Father manifests himself today, what he did in our lives yesterday, last week, this month, we share this testimony and have fellowship together, “and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
