LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 385

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 385

manifestations of fellowship must be truthful and in accordance
with the supreme demands of the marks of the church. The ‘sacred
things’ (sacra) are the Means of Grace, and only by way of them is
anything else a ‘sacred thing’ (sacrum)” (113).

62. Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation (St. Louis: Con-
cordia Publishing House, 1986), 159. The texts cited are Matt.
7:15-16; Rom. 16:17—18; 2 Cor. 6:14; Gal. 1:8; 2 Tim. 4:3; and
1 John 4:1.

63. Ibid., 241. This answer is supported by Acts 2:42; | Cor.
10:17; 1 Cor. 11:26; and Rom. 16:17.

64. “Syncretism” is the older word for mingling confessions,
but now usually means joining with non-Christian religions.

65. 1998 Handbook, 11.

66. 1977 Resolution 3-25, “To Speak Regarding Lutheran/Non-
Lutheran Weddings,” Convention Proceedings, 136.

67. 1981 Resolution 3-01, “To Declare LCMS Not in Altar and
Pulpit Fellowship with ALC,” Convention Proceedings, \5

THE LUTHERAN UNDERSTANDING OF CHURCH
FELLOWSHIP

A SUMMARY

At its 1998 convention The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
noted that a growing problem exists in its midst regarding the un-
derstanding, application, and practice of fellowship. The Synod
asked the President and the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations to prepare a study of our church’s confessional nature
(why we are who we are) and our fellowship principles and prac-
tices (why we do what we do).

As we begin this study of fellowship we call attention to the fol-
lowing basic assumptions:

a. The Holy Trinity is the source and pattern for the fellowship
Christians have with one another in “the one holy Christian and
apostolic church” (Latin: una sancta). Just as the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit have an internal fellowship with each other, so
all believers have fellowship with God in Christ and therefore with
each other. As three persons are one God, so many Christians are
one church (Eph. 4:4—5)—whose unity with God and with each
other is created and preserved by the Gospel and sacraments.

b. The one church, the assembly of believers, is an article of

faith. Since only God can look into the heart, we cannot see the one
holy Christian church. Nevertheless, we believe that it exists and
can know where it is present. The church is known audibly in the
preached Gospel and visibly in the sacraments, for through these
means the Holy Spirit creates faith in Christ.

c. The church’s internal unity, known only to God (Eph. 1:4), is
expressed by an external or outward fellowship based on confes-
sion. The external unity of the church’s visible fellowship is deter-
mined by whether the Gospel is purely preached and the sacra-
ments are administered according to Christ’s institution. The
Gospel and sacraments are in themselves pure. But when church
bodies state publicly what they believe, tragically some obscure or
explicitly contradict the teaching of the Gospel and the proper ad-
ministration of the sacraments. For this reason the limits or bound-
aries of external fellowship are creeds and confessions.

1. Fellowship in the Scriptures

a. The New Testament term for “fellowship” (koinonia) refers
to joint participation in a common thing (e.g., Gospel, Christ, Holy
Spirit, faith, Baptism, Christ’s body and blood). Christian fellow-
ship originates when Christ through His Word unites us to Himself
(John 17:20). He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15).
When Christians are united to Christ and His Father they are also
one with each other (1 John 1:3; John 17:20-21). Christ is the head

of the body and we through Baptism are its members (Rom.
12:48; Eph. 4:1—16; 5:22-32; Col. 2:9-12).

b. The church’s internal fellowship (una sancta) is constituted
by faith in Christ and is a completed reality, but external unity is
not. Earliest Christianity was divided and marked by conflict, splin-
tered because of different doctrine—a situation not unlike modern
denominationalism. Churches and pastors were united in an exter-
nal fellowship by accepting the apostles’ teaching, sharing a com-
mon confession of faith, and participating together in Holy Com-
munion (Gal. 2:9; Acts 2:42; Rom. 16:17). But not all churches
belonged to the apostolic fellowship (e.g., the Nicolaitans—Rev.
2:6, 15; cf. | John 2:19). Hence, already in New Testament times
some churches were orthodox, others heterodox. As Jesus predicted
in his warning against false prophets (Matt. 7:15; 24:11, 24), Chris-
tianity would be fragmented, troubled by false teachers.

c. For the sake of church unity Jesus and the apostles required
that Christians confess the faith and that this confession be true
(Matt. 10:32; 16:13-18; Rom. 10:9-10; | John 4:1-3; John
8:31~—32; John 17:17-23; Tit. 1:9; 3:10; | Tim. 1:3; 6:3-5, 20;
2 Tim. 2:25; 3:5). Distinguishing between the Good Shepherd’s
voice and other voices spells the difference between life and death
for the sheep ((John 10). Thus, the New Testament shows through-
out that the confession of what is true and the rejection of what is
false was taken seriously—not merely for the sake of being right
but for the sake of preserving saving faith (1 Tim. 1:9-16; 6:3;
2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1-2, 8). Sadly, this may some-
times require separation (Acts 19:9; 2 Cor. 6:17). But since the
church lives from the Gospel, she must contend for its truth (Gal.
2:5, 14).

d. Faithfulness to apostolic doctrine sets both the basis and the
boundary for church fellowship in the New Testament, for true
teaching identifies orthodox churches and separates them from het-
erodox churches with their false teachings.

e. For early Christians Communion or participation in Christ’s
body and blood was the highest form of fellowship on earth (see
1 Cor. 10:16-21). Altar fellowship was preeminently church fel-
lowship in the New Testament. (See Admission to the Lord’s Sup-
per: Basics of Biblical and Confessional Teaching, A Report of the
Commission on Theology and Church Relations, 1999.) Partici-
pation in Christ’s body and blood is a proclamation of His death
(1 Cor. 11:26), a solemn and public confession made in the pres-
ence of God and all the saints. On account of’this, false teachers
and their followers were excluded from the Lord’s Supper in apos-
tolic churches. Without agreement in the apostolic doctrine (Acts
2:42) there was no church fellowship.

Certain passages in the New Testament contain especially
straightforward and severe condemnations that still apply to false
teachers and their churches (Rom. 16:17-18; Gal. 1:6-9). Accord-
ing to many respected Lutheran theologians these passages occur
within the context of the Lord’s Supper. In applying these and
other scriptural passages that speak of errant teachers and teach-
ings that come not from the Spirit of truth (John 15:26) but from
Satan who deceives (2 Cor. 11:14; 2 Tim. 3:13), our task is not to
untangle the heart’s mixed motives or to pass judgment on the pres-
ence and quality of another’s faith. Rather, we are to apply the
apostolic standard to doctrines and practices of our own and other
churches.

f. Some talse teachers face eternal condemnation (Matt.
7:21-23), while others may be saved if they cling by faith to the
Gospel foundation (1 Cor. 3:11—15). Nevertheless, their false
teachings exclude them from the fellowship with the apostolic
churches.

2. Fellowship in the Lutheran Confessions

Luther and the other confessors desired church unity, but not at
the price of doctrine or through political solutions. Decisive was
their definition of the one church. They defined the church not or-
ganizationally, but in the words of the Augsburg Contession as
“the assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and

2001 Convention Workbook