Biblical Fellowship

The term Biblical fellowship has more depth than it often gets credit for. I have been reminded that it is so much bigger than I realize. Biblical fellowship is more than just eating and talking together, and it is also more than encouraging and challenging one another. Biblical fellowship is sharing life together.


First and foremost believers share life together in the literal sense of being "dead to sin and alive to God" (Rom 6:11). Fellowship with one another starts with a relationship/fellowship with the Lord. God has saved believers and called them from death to life in Him, and they have that in common with one another. Upon salvation, born-again Christians are adopted into the same family; so through their relationship with God they have a relationship with one another (I John 1:3, 7).

But its more than a relationship, Christians share life together as partnership too. They are a family in terms of their relationship, and a body in terms of their partnership. As a body, Christians are linked together with other parts, all of which are working as one unit to accomplish one goal. Partnering together is the only way for each part to perform its function. The body consists of many members working together, and depending on one another (I Cor 12:20-21).

Those are sort of prerequisites. As Christians objectively share life together as a family and as a body, they are then allowed and expected to act like it! Because they have this bond with one another, believers are called to fellowship in both words and actions.

Through words, Christians are able to speak truths into one another's lives. They can "encourage one another as we see the Day drawing near" (Heb 10:25).  If you read Hebrews 3:13, you will notice that believers need other believers in their lives or else they will be hardened by sin. Its not only helping one another stay out of sin, its encouraging and sharpening one another in pursing holiness.

But how would Christians ever be able to speak words to one another if they never had any actions? If they never spent any time together, believers would never know what to "speak." It is through actions- friendships, pot-lucks, phone calls, emails, small groups, (and whatever else is typically labeled "fellowship")- that there is any foundation to spur one another on in the Lord (Heb 10:24). There would be no sharing of life together if words were not backed by actions. Every Christian is called to give himself to a life of fellowship; each individual has a responsibility in this.


I am confident that when Luke says that they "continually devoted themselves" to fellowship (Acts 2:42), he says it for a reason. It really is one of those things that takes devotion. It takes effort and purpose, or else (at least for me) it doesn't happen. Which of those 4 aspects is the hardest for you?