Think about these questions before you read further !!

• What does the word “fellowship” mean to you?
• Is there any way in which Christian fellowship is different to the fellowship found in other groups?

In Christian understanding God is himself a fellowship - three persons in one - living in a harmony of love.
God wants us to share fellowship, communion, a close personal relationship with himself.

• God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. (1 Cor 1v9)

It is the Holy Spirit who makes that happen for us

• May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:14)

Christian fellowship builds on our communion with God – he should be its focus

• We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1v3)

Forgiveness and honesty are essential ingredients of Christian fellowship

• If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1v6-7)

We are to support each other in times of suffering

• I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3v10-11)

Fellowship guides our behaviour

• If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2v1-4)

Consider the description that Luke gives in Acts 2v42-47 of the early Christian Church.
What does this suggest about the nature of Christian fellowship?
How does our Church life measure up to this picture?
What can you do yourself to contribute to a greater fellowship in our Church, with your fellow Christians?

• 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.