LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 387

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS

I. THE NATURE OF FELLOWSHIP

A. THE SCRIPTURAL CONCEPT OF FELLOWSHIP

1. Fellowship: Having Part in a Common Thing

In the New Testament the word koinonia (and its cognates), the Greek
term for fellowship. appears in a number of places. This is the word which St
Paul uses to refer to the offering which the churches of Macedonia collected
for the saints in Jerusalem (Rom. 15:26: 2 Cor. 9:13: cf. also 2 Cor. 8:4). The
apostle also employs it with reference to the relationship existing between
the wine and the blood and the bread and body of Christ received by
participants in the Sacrament of the Altar, who, though many. are one body
in Christ (1 Cor. 10:16-17). Not only does St. Paul speak of the Philippian
Christians as “partakers (synkoinonoi) with me of grace” (Phil. 1:7), but he
also say's that partaking ( synkoinoneo, koinoneo) in the sins of others is to be
avoided (Eph. 5:11: 1 Tim. 5:22). Luke calls James and John partners
(koinonon with Simon in the fishing business (Luke 5:10)

The New Testament describes Christians as partners who share in the
Gospel (1 Cor. 9:23), in faith (Philemon 6), in sufferings and comfort (Phil.
3:10; 2 Cor. 1:7: Rev. 1:9), in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1), and in
eternal glory (1 Peter 5:1). St. Paul tells the Corinthians that they have been
called “into the fellowship {koinonia) of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1
Cor. 1:9), and St. John writes that he proclaims that which he has seen and
heard“so that you may have fellowship (koinonia) with us; and our fellowship
{koinonia) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). St
Luke reports (Acts 2:42) that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and fellowship” ( koinonia), and St. Paul writes that when
James, Cephas, and John “perceived the grace that was given to me,” they
gave to him and Barnabas “the right hand of fellowship” (koinonia) (Gal. 2:9)

Without referring to every place where koinonia (and its cognates)
appears in the New Testament. it can be concluded that this is a term which

+J.V. Campbell says that koinonia means “having some-
thing in common with someone” or “participating in something”
(J. V. Campbell, “Koinonia and Its Cognates in the New
Testament,” Journal of Biblical Literature (1932), pp. 356 f.). The
Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich lexicon (second edition) lists four mean-
ings: 1) association, communion, fellowship, close relationship; 2)
generosity, fellow-feeling, altruism; 3} sign of fellowship, proof of
brotherly unity, gift, contribution; and 4) participation, sharing in
something (W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian

daughters (Eph. 1:3-14). Although God had created the human race to be in
fellowship with Him (Gen. 1:26-29; 2:16-17), this relationship was destroyed
when Adam and Eve yielded to the temptation of Satan and transgressed His
command (Gen. 3). But in the fullness of time God. in accordance with His
plan, sent His Son Jesus Christ. “born of woman. born under the Law. to
tedeem those who were under the Law” (Gal. 4:4). St. Paul tells the Galatians
that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of
you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27). “By the
washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” God unites us with
Christ and makes us “heirs in hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). The apostle
Paul writes. “dustified by faith. we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). We are given access by faith to His grace (Rom.
3:2)

Fellowship with Christ is therefore given with faith in Him. Through the
means of grace God offers and conveys to us forgiveness for our sins. By:
Baptism we are incorporated into the body of Christ, and we are now
privileged to call God “Father.” The treasures of forgiveness. life. and
salvation are ours already now in this life through faith. Furthermore, the
Holy Spirit works through the Word and sacraments to preserve us in union
with our Savior until He returns on the last day. This vertical relationship of
spiritual unity with Christ is not something we can achieve. It is a gift from
God to all believers in Jesus Christ

b. Unity in the Church, the Body of Christ

Faith not only places believers in Christ into a spiritual fellowship with
their Lord, but it also unites them with one another. St. Paul writes: “There is
one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs
to your call, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all,
who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6). The apostle refers to
Christ as “the Head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18), and he says that
“we. though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of
another’ (Rom. 12:5). This means that, properly speaking, there is only one
church *

Since the one holy Christian church (una sancta ecclesia) includes all
believers in Christ, its members are to be found throughout the world in all
Christian denominations where the Gospel is taught and the sacraments are

5We therefore confess in the Nicene Creed: “And believe
one holy, Christian, and apostolic church.” That there is.
Properly speaking, only one church is also confessed in the third
article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in... the holy Christian
church” (The Book of Concord, pp. 18-19).

10

has as its root meaning “having part in a common thing.”+ It is with ths
meaning in mind that the New Testament writers use it to refer toavarety of
relationships. Important in this discussion on the nature of feilowship in the
context of inter-Christian relationships is tne fact that Koimonta most
frequently appears in connection with that spiritual unity which exists in the
body of Christ (e.g., 1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:3), but itis also used at times to reter
to the attempts of Christians to manifest this umity externally (e.g.. Acts 2:42:
Gal. 2:9). It dare not be overlooked, however. that the Scriptures aiso have
much to say about each of these two distinct | but not separate) reiationsh:ps
without making specific use of the term koinonia at all. For exampie. this
word appears neither in Paul's discussion of spiritual unity :n the dody of
Christ in Eph. 4:1-6 nor in Chnst’s High Priestly Prayer in John 17:20: .nor:s
it used in many of those sections of Scripture which exhort Christians to
guard the truth and to live together in the church in an external relanonsh:p
of peace and love on the basis of agreement in God's Word(e.g..1 Cor 1:20.
2 Tim. 1:13-14).

The implications of that which has just been stated are clear This study
on fellowship will have to be more than a mere word study on the meaning
and usages of koinonia in the New Testament. If we are to be taithtu, to the
Scriptural understanding of the nature of fellowship in the context of :nter-
Christian and interchurch relationships, then it will be necessary not oniy to
examine those sections of the Scriptures where the word koinonia appears
but also to take into account what God's Word has to say about the spirituai
unity which is given with faith in Chnst and to heed the guidance the
Scriptures give to Christians regarding external umty in the church

2. Fellowship: A Spiritual Relationship Which Is Given
a. Unity with Christ

Even before the foundation of the world, God the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ planned for our redemption and chose us to be His sons and

Literature, 2nd ed. rev. and augmented by F. W. Gingrich and
Frederick Danker [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
1979}. pp. 438-39). Friedrich Hauck in the Theological Dicnionar,
of the New Testament outlines his discussion of the New
Testament's use of koinonia and its cognates under the headings
1) “to share with someone in something”: 2) “to give someone a
share in something”; and 3) “fellowship” (Friedrich Hauck.
“Koinon. in the New Testament.” Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B
Eerdmans. 1965]. pp. 804-809). Cf. also Heinrich Seesemann.
Der Begriff Koinonia im Neuen Testament (Giessen: Verlag von
Alfred Tépelmann, 1933}.

administered. (Is. 55:10-11: Rom. 1:16-17, 10:17; Matt. 13:37 f.; 26:26-28: Gal
3:27-28: 1 Cor. 1:22 Tim. 2:19a). The members of this church do not exist as
pebbles in a box but as branches ona vine (John 15:5}. “There is neither Jew
nor Greek. slave nor free. male nor female, among those who have put on
Christ in Baptism, for they are “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Christ
speaks of members of His body as being one “even as Thou, Father, art in
Me, and J in Thee” (John 17:21). But not ali who are listed as members of
Christian churches are necessarily included in this fellowship. for church
rosters may contain the names of unbelievers and hypocrites.?

Like the vertical fellowship of the believer with Christ, this spiritual unity
which binds all true Christians together in a horizontal relationship in the
body of Christ is a gift from God and not the product of human efforts

3. Fellowship: An External Relationship
to Be Manifested and Maintained’

a. “Forbearing One Another in Love”

Since it is faith in the heart which binds believers together with Christ
and with one another, no human eye can see this spiritual unity. But there is
an inner dynamic to faith in Jesus Christ which works toward an external
unity embracing all those who confess faith in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:10}
What the church is by God's design is what He wants the church to show
itself to be—one—so that “the world may believe” (John 17:21).

The Scriptures, therefore, exhort Christians to manifest the unity which
has already been given them by virtue of their incorporation into the body of
Christ. St. Paul writes: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to leada
life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-3}. Those who have
been grafted into Him whois the true vine are to bear the fruit of the Spirit
(Gal. 5:22). Having been incorporated by Baptism into the body of Christ,
they should manifest love for the fellow members of His body. Love for the
brethren, writes St. John, is evidence that we have “passed out of death into
life” (1 John 3:14; cf. Eph. 5:2). This external unity, although involving human
efforts, is also a gift from God

‘It is for this reason that the Lutheran Confessions
distinguish between the church properly speaking (proprie dicta)
and broadly speaking (large dicta) (Ap, VII and VIII, 10, 12-13, 16,
20, 22).

7Fellowship understood as an external relationship to be
manifested and maintained also possesses a spiritual dimension,
to be sure, in that it is constituted by agreement in the confession
of the Scriptural Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.

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