Today (now yesterday) I had a miniature High School reunion. An old friend I went to Junior High and High School with showed up on my Facebook feed and his posts were bold and distinctively Christian. I had not communicated with him since High School and actually by the time we both were in High School we not really close. The fact of the matter is that he was much more popular than I was. He drove a convertible black Mustang, probably a late 70’s model and seemed to have it all. My senior year was different if for no other reason than it being flipped on its head when I became a genuine Christian.

Life took a dramatic shift where I went from living a duplicitous life to being a real Christ follower. Seemingly, overnight I left one group of friends and embraced another. Needless to say, I had not really had a meaningful conversation with this former friend since a Jr. High bus ride where he invited me to come over to his house and shoot baskets. Suffice it to say, we had not spoken since the 80’s, meaning in over thirty years.

Based on what I read from his FB posts, I decided to reach out at risk of coming across “out-of-the-blue” and awkward. One FB I explained that I live in Alaska, was married and have six kids, and not to mention a full-time pastor who preaches verse-by-verse exposition every week. Based on his response to these descriptions I had a strong suspicion we would strike up and renew our friendship, so I jumped in my Bronco, to pick up my boys from cross-country and called his cell.

It was late on the east coast but he picked up anyway. Within the first five minutes we were both completely at ease sharing freely about who were are, what we believe about the Bible, where he goes to church, and what we both stand for. To say the least, this we not superficial chitchat but life convictions. Topics quickly digging beneath the surface from where we both grew up, comparing Virginia Beach (transient military town) with Anchorage (transient military town) to shared convictions such as what we believe about the pandemic, politics, and where society is going. We touched on how there are real life challenges even specifically within churches. He, by the way, is not a pastor but a strong Christian and lay youth leader in his church and a structural engineer by trade.

Why did we hit is off so quickly? Our present world is so cynical, filled with people with their “shields up.” This was not that! In fact, our 40 minute conversation was utterly refreshing. Why? In a word, “fellowship.” Christian fellowship in the church when explained is normally reduced to something of a superficial experience within church. “Let’s have fellowship as a fellowship supper in the fellowship hall.” Fellowship is so much more. In the New Testament, the word fellowship or koinwnia means “to share common life” or “to be in common with others.” For believers this common life is eternal life or common life in the Holy Spirit.

I cannot think of any better description of Christian fellowship than what Paul writes in Philippians 2:1-2.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” (Philippians 2:1-2)

Paul describes Christian fellowship in terms of “encouragement in Christ” “comfort from love” “participation in the Spirit” “affection and sympathy” (Phil. 2:1). The word “participation” is literally the word “fellowship” – in the original language: koinwnia. The other terms “encouragement”, “comfort”, “affection” are actually dynamic synonyms filling out what fellowship is and does. The shared experience that only Christians share.

With rhetorical sentiment, Paul asks, “if there is any…” of these dynamics happening within your heart? In other words, he asks this church body to search their hearts for warmth. For shared affections growing out of the root system from Christ and the Holy Spirit. Fundamental to Christian intimacy is shared love in the Lord along with shared convictions born by the Spirit.

Practically speaking, believers truly relate like brothers and sisters when they know they all cherish the same Jesus. When you have the same belief system, same worldview, same promises, all based on inspired Scripture, then this makes for an incredible foundation to talk about anything and everything. No subject is taboo. Unity that is this culturally radical forms from knowing and feeling the unique connection between Christians – what the Bible calls fellowship. And, Paul describes this reality in verse 2. Paul is saying his joy will be complete, literally “brimming” when he is assured that his brothers and sisters in Christ are “of the same mind [and] same love”- thinking in harmony! (cf. Phil. 1:2).

Christian fellowship allows freedoms to safely talk about and take political positions, safely talk about health concerns, safely talk about personal finances, about personal defeats, struggles, and victories in life. You know your identity as a blood bought Christian and as a corporate member of Christ’s body. You know your chief mission in life is giving glory to God and winning others to do the same! These personal assurances pave the way for the deepest kind of friendship, Christian friendship.

Christian friendship is much more than attending the same church or Christian school. When Jesus is the center of a relationship the bond is second to none.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, pastor and martyr. During World War 2, he became a caught and executed for conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Before his death, Bonhoeffer, authored a significant work on the theme of Christian community, titled Life Together. For him simple fellowship was “kindl[ing] the flame of the true fire of Christ.” As a fiery Christian, he reflected on his experience in Hitler’s prison camp, awaiting execution. His experience there with other believers was deepest fellowship he had ever known.

“What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity. I have community with others and I shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, for eternity.”

“God has prepared for Himself one great song of praise throughout eternity, and those who enter the community of God join in this song. It is the song that the “morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” at the creation of the world. (Job 38:7). It is the victory song of the children of Israel after passing through the Red Sea, the Magnificat of Mary after the annunciation, the song of Paul and Silas in the night of prison, the song of the singers on the sea of glass after their rescue, the “song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:3) It is the song of the heavenly fellowship.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together)