The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
What Fellowship Is All About
In Hebrews 10:24-25 we are urged to “…consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.” In the New Testament there are numerous passages that address the expression of our unity in Christ through the mutual encouragement and provocation to holiness that is derived from spending time with other Christians. Being part of a church is not exclusively comprised of spending time in a church building to sing songs and hear Sunday sermons. It is an association with like-minded people for the purpose of worship, glorifying God, and of strengthening each other to the task of Christian Living in the midst of Spiritual Warfare.
1 Peter 3: 5b-11 gives us some specific instructions on how to accomplish this God-given assignment:
“ …all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour, whom [you need to] resist steadfastly in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
It is only on the basis of the personal holiness of each Christian that we are able to corporately worship God, exercise the unity we have in the Holy Spirit, and support spiritual growth and strength in our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Hebrews 3:12-13 cites additional stipulations which need to also be intentionally embraced by Christians:
“Take heed [to the lessons from the Old Testament], brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Throughout the New Testament we are compelled by Scripture to make intentional choices toward personal holiness. The fact that similar directions are repeated throughout the New Testament demonstrates that we are prone to sin if our focus strays from God’s revealed Word. Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit within us is able to keep us from falling, but we can easily hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in us by hardening our hearts or seeking for ourselves that which is unholy. The outcome of our intentional decisions to be holy according to the Word of God is not only the pleasure of fellowship with other believers and the spiritual growth we receive from that fellowship, but also the eternal reward of God’s pleasure:
“Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him” (James 1:12).
