(ii) THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT

Eric Burr

Philippians 2: 1-5; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-14

I was thinking about the "fellowship of the Spirit" or, as it is translated in Corinthians, "the communion of the Holy Spirit". The idea of fellowship has much place among us and in any reference to fellowship there is always what I could perhaps speak of as a negative side. Any fellowship anywhere implies that some are in it and some are not and, therefore, the very idea of fellowship has a kind of boundary idea in it. We have to dwell from time to time on that aspect of things and it is necessary that we should. It is right that the principles of fellowship should be insisted on, right that we should maintain them, right that we should be exclusive of what is not according to Scripture, not according to the truth that is in Scripture, that we should have these things in our minds continually. It is helpful also to bear in mind the old saying that, if you are in fellowship, anything you do or anywhere you go takes with you all those who are also in fellowship. That is a fairly simple thing to bear in mind: it is very easy to forget. It is very easy also to say it does not matter this time, but that saying which I quote is true and it is well to keep it in mind. But it is not that aspect that I wanted to refer to.

What Paul speaks about in these two scriptures the communion or fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I refer to it because it speaks to me at least about the bond that we have together as having the Spirit. As our brother who has spoken began to speak, he spoke about our need for addressing ourselves to the state among us, and it may be that one aspect of the state is that we should have close regard to the nature of our bonds with one another. There will be no enjoyment of fellowship unless our bonds with one another are actually appreciated. The fellowship of the Spirit does not mean that you go to the same meeting. It may do and it may be that in that meeting you can enjoy it. It does not even mean that you are breaking bread with certain people. The communion of the Spirit is something inward and something that you realise in touching it, perhaps without anything being said at all, and you know that you have a bond with someone else who has the Holy Spirit. That is not surprising, of course, because Paul says elsewhere, "There is one body and one Spirit" (Eph 4: 4) and therefore you would feel a bond with everybody who has the Spirit. I am sure that many have found that one of the most refreshing things is, as we might say by chance, to come across another believer who will say something to you about God or Christ or even the Spirit Himself and you feel that inward bond that you both have the same Spirit, the Spirit of God.

These things are very blessed. They help us, as Paul goes on to say, in these verses in Philippians in esteem for one another. You do not just say, Here comes old so-and-so. Here is someone with whom you have a bond in the Spirit and someone with whom you should at any moment be able to enter into the experience of the communion of the Holy Spirit. These things make fellowship in a positive sense of it very real, and in one way, they are the only things that do. The communion of the Spirit is what makes the experience of fellowship real and there are many substitutes for it but none of them is effective. Doctrinal agreement does not of itself create a bond. Acknowledging the same things does not of itself create a bond. It may help to, but the reality of our bond - if I borrow from Paul elsewhere, "the bond of perfectness" - is the communion of the Holy Spirit.

That touches the question, of course, whether each of us realises that we have the Holy Spirit. It would be amazing really if there were a believer on the Lord Jesus in relation to the forgiveness of their sins who did not know that they had the Holy Spirit; yet I have spoken to brothers amongst us and they said it was a long time before they realised they had. Perhaps we need more simplicity, but the inward side of things for its working depends not on mutual acquiescence in the same things: it depends on the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Now you have the Holy Spirit and I have the Holy Spirit. I trust everyone grasps that, that they have the Holy Spirit, and that creates a bond between us. It is not a natural bond. It has been proved historically that natural bonds are frail. They can come under test and they break. They can come under test and it is found that the bond that was purely natural did not stand the strain, but the communion of the Holy Spirit will always stand the strain because there is there dwelling in each believer the power of what is divine. What gives rise to the expression of the divine nature in persons is that they have the Holy Spirit, and the communion of the Spirit is a bond that cannot be broken. I am afraid it can be interfered with because we allow other things to prevail over it: we allow what is natural to prevail over it. You hear sometimes, even amongst us, even in the small company which we are, criticism of one another and aspersions about one another which are setting aside the reality of the communion of the Holy Spirit. It would be much better if we dwelt on that side of things and found that it is a necessity for us in this day of small things that the bonds which are in the Spirit are the bonds which hold us together and which become exclusive. Paul goes on here to say, "each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves". The tendency to criticise other people is often a sign of a feeling of short-coming in myself. We need therefore, to get back to this foundational ground of what the reality of our bond with one another is, that is, that it is the communion of the Holy Spirit. And because there is only one Spirit, this bond is unbreakable. Could we let it come to the surface more? Could we let it become more natural among us, that the communion of the Spirit is what binds us together?

Paul writes to the Philippians about this and having said "if any fellowship of the Spirit", Paul says, Let this mind be among you. It is not exactly that it is in each one of your individually, but let this mind be among you. The mind that was in Christ Jesus, let it be among you! If there is an area where the communion of the Holy Spirit is known, it would not be difficult to recognise the mind that was in Christ Jesus. It is not exactly - although perhaps you would says it has to be - that it is in each individual, but it is among you. It is as if the Lord came in, Jesus stood in the midst, and the mind that was in Christ Jesus was there among them, there manifested among them.

These things are very blessed. I often wish that I had more experience of things that I sometimes speak about. Perhaps you do too - wish you had more experience of the things that you can see the truth of in Scripture, and you can speak about them, and you wish that they were more real, so that you found a bond, a different kind of bond from the natural or from what people may appear or things that are according to the flesh or things that are according to nature. It surprised me sometimes that people even found me difficult to get on with. Beloved, it is not the mind that is in Christ Jesus. Perhaps it surprises you if people do not get on with you. You think, how could anyone not get on with me? But, beloved, that is the first man and what is needed is the communion of the Holy Spirit and Paul, in effect, says there are these other things too, these other things that he has referred to in this scripture. He says, "If then there be any comfort in Christ ... if any bowels and compassions", and so on, but I dwell on this, "if any fellowship of the Spirit", then "let this mind be in you" and it will find an easy way in, that mind among you.

I have referred to the close of 2 Corinthians because I have often thought that Paul has had a great deal to adjust in the Corinthians epistles. The adjustments and the putting things right in the first epistle are all well-known to us. Things went on in a Christian company that you could hardly believe. The first epistle brings that out. The second epistle is in a certain sense looking at things improved, looking at things different, but at the end of the second epistle, Paul has to say to himself, I am afraid of these Corinthians that what was there when I wrote first is still there, and he is afraid that it might even be worse; but then at the end he says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all", as much as to say, if those things are there, Corinth will be safe, because these things in themselves are exclusive. I am not saying they are exclusive to particular people, but they have the effect of excluding, and they have the effect of excluding evil and the communion of the Holy Spirit is a great power for the exclusion of evil.

I just refer to these things, beloved. I hope I have not gone too far and trust that what I have said has been simple, but I believe that the communion of the Holy Spirit is the great key to binding us together. Paul says love is "the bond of perfectness" (Col 3: 14), but the communion of the Holy Spirit itself can only be a bond of perfectness as well.

LONDON

9 June 1998