FELLOWSHIP (1)
1 Corinthians 10:14-22; Philippians 2:1,2
A.M.B. We have had two readings on the subject of fellowship. In these, we have noted the dignity that attaches to “the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” at the beginning of 1 Corinthians (chap.1:9), and also the authority that is associated with Christ’s lordship. Dignity and the Lord’s authority give character to fellowship. We have noted also that in the Scriptures, the word 'fellowship' and the word 'communion' are used in the English translation, although the original Greek word is the same. So the words mean the same thing; there is a helpful footnote in Hebrews 2:14 which refers to ‘common equal sharing’. We also considered how fellowship was known and enjoyed at the beginning of the history of the church here. In Acts 2, those who were pricked in heart and repented were found persevering "in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers" (v.42). These are all things which help us to see the character of Christian fellowship.
It is interesting that these scriptures use the word “of” – the fellowship of His Son, the fellowship of the apostles. That seems to refer to the character of fellowship. We also referred last week to 1 John 1:7, a well-known verse which says that “if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”. That reminds us that fellowship is to be with one another. What governs it is walking in the light as He is in the light. All of these are very important principles that govern the matter of fellowship.
In these verses that we have read today in 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle is warning the Corinthians against loose walk, and having communion with what was not seemly for Christians, in order to help them to recognise the importance of a separate walk. He speaks about what is suitable to those who are involved in "The cup of blessing which we bless". He reminds them that it is "the communion of the blood of the Christ", and that the bread which believers were accustomed to break together is "the communion", or fellowship, "of the body of the Christ", speaking of Christ’s death, His obedience unto death and the greatness of His death. So this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 would remind us that Christian fellowship is the fellowship of His death, of His blood and of His body. All of this is with a view to getting help together about how we work these things out practically, in the light of the divine view that is laid out in scripture about the character of fellowship according to God.
J.C.G. The death of Christ as represented by the emblems on the table at the Supper becomes a separating point for the believer from what characterises the world, and the things in the world.
A.M.B. We need to see the importance and depth of what you have said. One aspect of the separating nature of Christ’s death is that He was rejected by the world. He was put to death in the world, and yet He is life for me. So I can never associate myself with the world’s thinking about Jesus, or with its judgment of Him, can I?
J.C.G. It is important to understand that in Corinth, there was the assembly of God, comprising all the believers who were in Corinth, and then there was the Jewish synagogue, and then the temple of idolatry. We are not faced here with the literality of idols or demons. How would we work this out at the present time? What would be represented by what the apostle Paul speaks of as idols or demons? Is it what characterises the world’s system in some sense?
A.M.B. It seems to have the character of what is definitely not according to God, what is opposed to Him. It was these features in the world that scorned Christ and rejected Him. We know that the Jews were involved in that, and also the Romans, in the false judgment of Christ, and in that mockery of a trial. Both the Jews and the Romans were involved in His being put to death. But what comes before us in this passage is what is of the world, whatever character it might take. For a young believer, or any one of us, we need to understand that the world has no time for Christ. For us who love Him, He is life for us, and He has demonstrated His love for us by shedding His blood. That blood brings in life for us. How can we have anything to do with the world which has rejected Him and scorned Him and cast Him out?
G.A.B. Why does the cup come before the loaf?
A.M.B. Paul is not speaking about the order of the Lord’s supper here; that comes into the next chapter. In a sense he was preparing the Corinthians morally in chapter 10 to properly take the Lord’s supper in chapter 11. The cup would make a tremendous appeal to the affections of any true believer.
G.A.B. It draws us together as nothing else does. We all drink of that cup, which is called the Lord’s cup. It does speak of the loaf, but firstly it says "the bread"; it is as if there are certain things that we appropriate – the cup which is the communion of the Lord’s death, and the bread. Is it that side of things which we have in this chapter?
A.M.B. “The cup of blessing which we bless" must relate to the shared appreciation which believers have of the love of God expressed in the shedding of the blood of His Son. Why was it done? It was done for us. As each one of us is able to say that, we have a bond together. It is the "communion of the blood of the Christ" – what that conveys is the characteristic feature of fellowship. So it draws together all those who truly appreciate the blessing of that blood.
J.D. Do you think that it would involve the communion of the One whose life was taken from the earth?
A.M.B. I am sure it would go on to that, and would involve what was said earlier about the communion of the blood and the communion of Christ’s body separating us from the earth. If we are truly in the good of what we are doing when we put our hands to the emblems, they separate us from the earth. It is with a view to our appreciating that the source of life for the believer is in Christ, whose life is not on the earth. He lives in Heaven – that is what marks His life, and that is imparted by the Spirit to believers.
J.D. I was thinking about the eunuch saying, “what hinders my being baptised?”, Acts 8:36. It is the application of the death of Christ in that way to set us free.
J.S. I was thinking of how Paul begins here, “I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say”. This principle runs right through Scripture from the passover lamb onwards; Isaiah 53 comes to mind. The whole context of scripture is about God’s appreciation of that precious death.
A.M.B. It is challenging to apply that to ourselves – “I speak as to intelligent persons”. Paul was crediting the Corinthians with understanding the Scriptures. That is something we need to be exercised about; to understand what the Scriptures mean. There is the word of Scripture – what it says – but the Spirit helps us to understand what God meant when He inspired it, all with a view to the believer appreciating the things that God is speaking about, and then coming into line with them.
R.G. Is that one of the reasons that it says in verse 14, “Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry”? It is not only a question of demons, but so that the whole matter of fellowship should be free of any contamination from the world, or anything that belongs to it.
A.M.B. The Scriptures highlight that for us. It has often been said that idolatry is anything that would be an alternative object for our affections besides Christ. Paul is saying to the Corinthians, 'do not have anything before you other than this One who has died for you, whose blood has been shed for you, and whose life is in a different place altogether'. He is not here, He is risen, and our hope is with Him and in Him. What has been said about intelligent persons is relevant – God would want us to come to an appreciation about His thoughts about Christ. That would require spiritual intelligence.
R.G. Do you think that this is one of the reasons that the Supper is not announced? We hold it in an inside place. I was thinking this morning about the "upper room furnished", Luke 22:12. God not only set these things on in Christ, but He provided a place where they can be understood and entered into, do you think?
A.M.B. That aspect of fellowship is very important. It is protective, so that an important characteristic of Christian fellowship is that Christ is supreme there, and His authority is supreme. It is "the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”; He is appreciated and loved there. It is the communion of His blood; His obedience unto death is appreciated. It is also the communion of His body, the body in which He obeyed God and went all the way to death, to fulfil His will and to redeem us. Anything or anybody that does not care about these things has no place in that fellowship.
J.A.B. What you are saying would link with the exercise of a young person who asked his father recently why he cannot enjoy the fellowship (which he does) and go out with his school friends in the evening. Why cannot he enjoy both?
A.M.B. There is a twofold answer. One is in terms of the principle of fellowship. If we have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, and answered to that call truly and inwardly, then we are associated with that One. Our associations are with Him, and it would be a slight on the Name of this One were we to be seen publicly doing things which are not in accord with His blessed Person, His life and His death. So if I go into a place of worldly enjoyment or entertainment, I am not publicly in accord with the fellowship of His Son, with the fellowship of His blood, or the fellowship of His body. These are in principle the places that mocked Christ, and put Him to death. But there is another reason. If I do go on with what I know is not according to the truth and is grieving to the Spirit, then I will not enjoy precious Christian things myself, and that is sad. The first answer is that it is not right in principle, and I should not be doing it. The second relates to the enjoyment of my links with Christ and with my brethren, what I enjoy here as a Christian and which will be damaged by acting in a way that is not right.
J.C.G. Paul speaks in Galatians "so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world”, Gal.1:4. That involves everything which is not consistent with the death of Christ; that is, the activities of unbelievers. It involves a wide sphere of things, not just what has been raised about our companions, but it involves our associations with persons in the world who are in clubs, trade unions, professional associations and the like, who buy shares or have partnerships in companies. The death of Christ has finished with all these things, which are part of the world’s system. Paul also says, “We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?”, Rom.6:2. We are living in a new environment.
A.M.B. The fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord is much greater than anything else; it displaces everything else. I would not want to go on with anything that is not in accord with that fellowship. I feel that if I had a greater idea of the dignity and blessedness of what as a Christian I have been called into, my desire to be consistent with it would be greater. I would not want to be associated with anything that was undignified or that spoiled the enjoyment of that fellowship which I have been called into.
A.D.M. Is that why, in this chapter, Paul uses expressions that convey the height and preciousness of Christianity, to bring the sensibilities of the Corinthians back into play again? It is as though they had become dulled or tarnished. The writer to the Hebrews speaks about "provoking to love and good works", Heb.10:24. Paul is really provoking the Corinthians to re-evaluate what they had been called to, the great sacrificial basis on which it has been established, rather than setting down a code of rules which say that you cannot do this or that thing. That is true, but that is not how he approaches it.
A.M.B. Yes, he appeals to them and then relies on the sensitivities of these believers at Corinth. They had given up a lot to become believers. He appeals to their affections, when he refers to “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?”. What an appeal that was to their feelings. And then “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?”. You could not get anything more intimate, in presenting the thing to a believer, than to appeal to him or her on the basis of the blood and the body of the Christ.
P.A.G. Does it help us to see that the cross is the way out, but the blood is the way in? Paul has to move quickly on to "the word of the cross" (1 Cor.1:18) because there were certain things that the Corinthians needed to be clear of. But the cup of blessing involves that we are called out. I know that this is the public side, but we are on the threshold of something very precious. The cup comes first, because what is for God comes first. In 1 Corinthians 11, it is “This is my body, which is for you” (v.24), but what has to come first is what is for God.
A.M.B. The word of the cross comes in right at the beginning of this epistle when Paul brings before the Corinthians that what the cross speaks of is to the world foolishness and weakness, but it is God’s wisdom and power. The cross is the end of everything that relates to man naturally and his sinful condition. There is a complete judicial end to that. But then the blood establishes our righteousness as believers in Jesus, before God.
The sinner who believes is free,
Can say, The Saviour died for me;
Can point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God. (Hymn 357)
The apostle appeals to their appreciation of that.
G.A.B. What we have before us in these verses is something that is faced and settled in our lives before we come to the Lord’s supper. In chapter 11, we have the order of the Lord’s supper, but these issues we are speaking of now would all be settled before that.
A.M.B. So the apostle is bringing up these matters as to moral conditions and the walk of the Corinthians so that they should have these things clear in their own minds, and should regulate their lives accordingly. That emphasises the importance of coming to the Supper having settled anything which might get in the way.
G.A.B. That confirms what we were saying, that it is not the order of the Lord’s supper here; it is more the exercise that has to be faced. You might say at home, ‘I am going to put my hand to the loaf tomorrow morning; I am going to put my lips to the cup. Am I clear about these things which we have been speaking about; am I ready for it?’ In chapter 11 Paul says “let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread” (v.28). It is all seen to, is it not?
A.M.B. It is good to get these principles in our souls. As they are in my soul, then the Spirit will help me to appreciate how they apply to me, and therefore how they regulate my walk here, my actions and words and thoughts.
J.S. In the old system, there was the laver which the priests were to use before they approached (Exod.40:30). That principle is still valid, is it not?
A.M.B. The laver was the first thing that was seen. It was copper, speaking to us of the judgment of evil. It was also full of water, and that was what the priests washed in before they had anything to do with the service of God. That is part of the type of the tabernacle, which is very instructive. The writer to the Hebrews makes clear that the tabernacle was typical, and that we should learn from it. It is in line with the New Testament; no priest ever went in to God without washing himself thoroughly with water from the laver.
J.S. These things show that, as we take an interest in divine things, Scripture is all one whole. It is very necessary to approach the Supper in a right state of soul, and the laver would provide for that.
A.M.B. We need to come to the Supper in that way. We would credit all our brethren with that. We desire to remember the Lord because that is being obedient to His commandment, and it is right to do so. But in a sense there is more to it than that. The scripture you have referred to would show that there is a moral way. If we do not attend to what is moral, we will never enjoy what God intends us to enjoy, and He will not get His portion from us.
J.D. The epistles to Corinthians and Galatians have both been described as correcting a tendency to departure from first principles (FER Vol.10 p.46). So we never get away from this. What has been spoken of is wholesome. We take it up individually in our moral exercises, involving the matter of proving ourselves before we eat. There is no other basis for fellowship to continue, for the Lord’s supper to proceed, and then what would flow out of the Supper into the service of God.
A.M.B. There is no basis in what man’s mind has imagined. Sadly, we see that human teaching has come into some of the systems of Christendom, bringing in innovation about what the bread and cup are. That is not what was from the beginning, not what is according to first principles. The apostle John strove to remind the believers he wrote to of what was from the beginning, and that included fellowship.
D.S. Is there something protective in the cup and in the bread, before we come to the thought of the blessing in Christianity as we partake of it? I was thinking of what has been said as to the cup coming first and the bread coming afterwards. There is a protective area which has been originated by divine Persons. The Lord delivered instruction about the Supper to Paul, and He showed the way it should be set out, and Paul is bringing these Corinthian saints back to it. There is something protected by divine Persons; it is not man made.
A.M.B. What is said in chapter 10 about the Lord’s supper is very important. It is protective in a moral sense. The first set of issues we need to be alert to, and make sure are addressed in accordance with the divine way, are in ourselves. The apostle is reminding them that when they take the Lord’s cup, it is the communion of His blood, and when they take the bread, it is the communion of His body. He is speaking of the Lord’s death, and as having appreciated the significance, the reality and the sobriety of Christ’s death and what it means for me, I am able to take the Supper rightly. That is protective.
D.S. I was thinking of what was said earlier about how, when we do something or go somewhere that we know is not right, we will not be happy about doing it. So in partaking of the loaf and the cup, if I am not right inwardly, I will not be happy in trying to please myself, and not happy in trying to please God. Is there something protective in the emblems being set on? If a person is in the good of them in their soul, they will come into the blessing of what God has set on in Christ.
J.A.B. What has just been said is the truth; we see it in Scripture, and we have also experienced it. If we try to go on with both, we enjoy neither. We have learnt that, from Scripture and from experience. Do you think that in these practical exercises of fellowship, the truth of it is borne out in the experiences of generations of believers?
A.M.B. It is well to remind ourselves that no element of Christian truth is intended to remain purely objective. Every thought of God that He has revealed to us is to be enjoyed. That is why we have the Holy Spirit, so that it might be so. The first question is – do I understand what God is setting out as light in the Scriptures? Do I also understand and accept teaching that is Scripture-based, through the operation of the Spirit speaking through devoted people in the past and currently too? The question is – do I understand what God says? That is a very important question – do I set myself for it, ask for the Spirit’s help, and for the help of others who could help me? But the second question is – am I enjoying it? I might enjoy it without fully understanding it, and in that way we learn the words by the things, as Mr Darby said (FER Vol.14 p.5). But it is very important that we are instructed, that we do understand the things of God, and what He says about them. Then we come into the experience of them. If we are breaking bread, and we do something that we know is not right, even although no one else knows about it, our conscience sees to it that we enjoy neither the worldly thing nor our link with Christ. But if we persist in doing what is not right, then we find that the Spirit is grieved and retreats, and our conscience may no longer tell us as surely as it once did what is right and what is wrong. We need to treat fellowship with the care that such a precious matter requires.
W.W.L. Some of us used to be told that wherever you go, you take the brethren with you. Our affections need to be involved; we have love for the Lord, but we should have love for the brethren too.
A.M.B. These matters go together. It is not just that this is what brethren say, not just what has been taught among faithful brethren for many years. That is certainly true, but "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren", 1 John 3:14. When John writes, "if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), how precious it is to find someone else who is walking in the light, who loves the Lord. I would feel a great bond with that person.
J.C.G. I might make an error, but if I do it again and again, it becomes self will and that becomes a serious matter; I am obstructing the Lord. I thought that what was raised about the washing is important, because the equivalent in the New Testament was the Lord’s feet-washing in John 13, which preceded His introduction of the Lord’s supper. He said “Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me” (v.8). That is, there will be no enjoyment of having part with Him unless I am free of what is wrong and defiling.
D.A.B. As well as being protective, there is what is preventive. That comes in to verse 17 and relates to what was said, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”. Paul stresses the oneness of the loaf; is that what fellowship is? There is a unity and a bond with one another that we would strive to maintain through the power of the Spirit and love for Christ.
A.M.B. That reference to one body is then expanded in chapter 12. It is a very important chapter to read and to become familiar with. What the apostle is speaking of is normal Christianity, that believers "being many, are one loaf". We all derive our life from Christ, and we are maintained in it by the power of the Spirit. That is a much greater common bond than any worldly bond could possibly be.
D.A.B. Is this the answer to what the apostle refers to in chapter 1, when he speaks about Paul and Cephas, and then he says, “Is the Christ divided?”, 1 Cor.1:13. He is not.
A.M.B. That is another important aspect of what we are speaking about in relation to fellowship. There is one fellowship, and we as believers have been called into it. The question for me is whether I have answered to that.
P.A.G. I was thinking about the verse that has been brought in. I wondered if what you have drawn attention to in 1 Corinthians 12 helps us as a practical example. There is mention there of the foot and the eye and the hand. We could not think of, say, a foot being a member of two bodies at once. We could see that that is physically impossible. But would it help us to see that it is spiritually impossible as well?
A.M.B. The human body is a very powerful illustration used by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 12, and he applies it to the body of Christ: “so also is the Christ” (v.12). What you say is right; a foot could not take instructions from two heads. It would not know where to walk, it would get confused. That is a bit like us. If we mix up the authority of Christ with some other authority, and that is most likely to be the authority of our own wills, we will get confused, and we will no longer walk in a straight line. We will not bring glory to the One who is our true Head.
J.S. What do you think of this expression “in communion with the altar”?
A.M.B. I thought it was the Jewish system conveyed in the altar.
J.S. Would it bring out that in Christianity it relates to Romans 12? If you place your body on the altar, you are in communion with it.
A.M.B. For a believer, the altar is primarily Christ. It would make us think of His offering Himself once and for all (Heb.10:10). Then, as you say, we follow that through. The truth is set before us beautifully and perfectly in Christ, but what does it mean for me? We look for instruction in the Scripture and we would find it in Romans 12. We have to offer our bodies a living sacrifice (v.1).
J.S.H. I was thinking that what we are speaking of is living. The Lord Jesus could say as to Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life”, John 11:25. That is what really marks Christianity, is it not? Everything in this world is marked by death, but what we have in Christianity is marked by life. I was thinking of the comment earlier about where we go and what we do. We may do something that others do not see, but the One who is marked by life, who is life, sees everything that we do. Is that what governs us?
A.M.B. If I truly realise that I derive my life from Christ, and that without Him there would be nothing, then I will want to be loyal to Him. I will acknowledge in my walk, in what I say and do, that I am in the communion of that One, the communion to which He gives character. He does see everything. He is not looking on us disapprovingly, but He takes account of everything and we would not want to grieve Him.
G.A.B. The matter of worldly companionship in a sense will look after itself if we express Christ. Other people will not want our company, will they?
A.M.B. That is a bigger challenge than keeping ourselves wrapped up at home. We cannot do that. We need to look after one another, look after our families, but there comes a time when young people need to go out into the world of education and work. If we are helped to be faithful and to speak the Lord’s name, we will be preserved.
R.G. Does the word at the end of Hebrews bear on this? The writer says “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle”, Heb.13:10. So, as our affections are engaged, we would come to the point that we are prepared to sacrifice. This begins to mean so much to us that we are committed to it. Paul emphasises that. We are at a great dividing point here; we can go with the truth of fellowship and all that it involves, or not.
A.M.B. So this has to be approached on the line of experience and relationships, do you think?
R.G. Yes, I do. So the Supper is not exactly the fellowship, but it is a very major part of it.
A.M.B. Yes, it is the most public expression of fellowship. But then it has an enormous importance in relation to inward enjoyment of what fellowship protects.
A.F. I wondered if whatever is unsuitable to the fellowship would actually provoke the Lord to jealousy?
A.M.B. We are asked: “are we stronger than he?” We are not. What you say is right, and it is sobering. If we do something inadvertently without realising it, then that is one thing. We ought not to, and we need help about it; we should not be self-willed, and we can quickly come back into line with what the Scripture teaches us, and brethren will be able to help us if we speak to them. But if we are on the line of putting our own thoughts first, and of saying ‘no matter what the Scripture says, this is what I think’, then we most certainly will bring in what is not compatible with fellowship, and we would in that case be provoking the Lord to jealousy. May we be preserved from that, because it is so disruptive of what the Scripture speaks of as fellowship.
A.F. The footnote refers to Deuteronomy 32, where we can see the effects of the people of Israel provoking the Lord to jealousy. In chapter 11 you see the same result, where many were ill or even died because of it (v.30). So we should be aware of the Lord’s jealousy; He is a very jealous God.
A.M.B. What that means is that He wants everything to be according to His mind. We might ask, ‘How do we know what the Lord’s mind is?’. He has set things out in Scripture, and as we were saying earlier, the apostle speaks here of intelligent persons, that is those who would be willing to enquire into the Scripture, understand what it means, and then be guided by it. But if anyone feels a question arising ‘How do I know what is compatible with fellowship?’, we go to the Scriptures and we seek the Lord’s and the Spirit’s help, and we will be guided into the truth. That is the Spirit’s service; He guides us into all the truth, and the truth is what would govern us.
P.A.G. I was thinking of the line of the hymn:
‘Himself He could not save,
Love’s stream too deeply flowed’ (Hymn 240)
Do you think the way to stay on the Lord’s side in these matters is to see that love’s stream flowed deeply? He went that way for you and me.
A.M.B. Do you not feel that that lies behind the apostle’s reference to "the communion of the blood of the Christ"? That suggests the stream of love that flowed so deeply. He gave Himself. He could not save Himself if you and I were to be saved; He had to sacrifice Himself. That is a truth that we find fully set out in Scripture, but what a matter it is to feel the reality and the constraining power of it in my heart and soul.
G.A.B. The matter of jealousy has been referred to. We sometimes mix up the meaning of the word jealousy with envy. It has been said that envy covets what belongs to another, but jealousy protects what is its own. If we provoke the Lord to jealousy, He would say ‘This is Mine, this is My property, I want to see it protected and preserved and defended’.
A.M.B. Paul speaks to the Corinthians of being “jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God”, 2 Cor.11:2. So what the Lord holds precious He wants to protect; He does not want to see someone else coming in and spoiling some of it, because it is for His pleasure. He is also grieved if He sees our enjoyment spoiled. His jealousy would come into that too. But then Paul was jealous with the same jealousy. It is right for us to be jealous in the correct sense that we are using the word, so that we might be alert to anything coming in, especially in ourselves, that would spoil things. If I become aware of something in another person, then I can speak to that brother or sister privately about it.
J.D. We spoke about how there is only one fellowship, and there is only one body comprised of every believer who has the gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet we do not break bread with every one. Do you think the communion of the blood and of the body of the Christ becomes the great determinant?
A.M.B. Yes. In the practical working out of universal fellowship, we prove what you say. We are all called into one fellowship. We have touched a little today on the practical working out of it, and if we are to look for scriptures to teach us about it, we would find them in 2 Timothy and other scriptures too. But the death of Christ is the great test.
Reading at Grangemouth
1 January 2012
Key to initials (Grangemouth unless otherwise stated)
A.M.B. Alistair Brown
D.A.B. David Brown
G.A.B. Allan Brown
J.A.B. John Brown
J.D. James Drummond Aberdeen Scotland
A.F. Arne Finger Pulheim Germany
J.C.G. John Gray
P.A.G. Paul Gray
R.G. Robert Gray
J.S.H. John Hutson London
W.W.L. Bill Lovie Aberdeen Scotland
A.D.M. Alan Munro
DS David Spinks
J.S. John Spinks