Yet, they had one great thing in common, fellowship in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This unified them in the work. They continued to gether as Paul points out, "from the first day until now." To bind people together on any other ba sis will always fail. The fellowship of the Spirit must mean a mutual participation in the things of eter nal life. It does not mean that we all receive a little bit of the Holy Spirit like water being poured into a glass. It is because we share a participation in the Holy Spirit that Paul admonishes the Philippians to strive to be of one accord and of one mind. Paul mentions fellowship three times in the epistle to the Philip pians. He points to our fellowship in the Gospel of God, our fellow ship in the Holy Spirit, and our fel lowship in the sufferings of Christ. What a tremendous fellowship we have in the Gospel and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There was nothing exclusive about the Apostle Paul or even about his Christian greetings. He remembers all of them in a very definite manner. This we see in his prayers for the believers (vrs. 4-8). In the first Christian century the world was filled with many barriers, just as it is in our time. These included race, wealth, edu cation and culture. There were problems between Jews and Gen tiles, Romans and Greeks, in Paul's day. There was no basic fellowship between any of these diverse groups. Only in Christ could that be found and then only among the believers. Christians were one in unity as they confessed one Lord and one salvation. All the barriers of the empire were still there but
the believers simply overlooked them. They had a higher calling. We are called upon to love all of our brethren in the Lord. We are to be in prayer for them all, speaking well of one another. We ought to be in intercession for each other. Prayer is simply talking with God about our condition and needs. We are told to do it con stantly (Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2). This does not mean a con stant repetition of praying the same thing all the time. Nor are we meant to retreat from the reality of life. We are to cherish a con stant and growing fellowship be tween ourselves and our heavenly Father. During this time, all the de tails of our lives are brought before Him. What a tremendous differ ence this makes. If you pray for someone you dislike you will find your own outlook changing. You will find yourself growing to love them in Christ. We are told that the early Christians prayed togeth er (Acts 2:42). Divisions between true believers would disappear if we learned to do this. Paul had a confidence in the Christians at Philippi because he knew that God was at work in them. What a tremendous thing to be able to see that the Lord works in the lives of others, even as He does in ours. Such a vision would help us to see that we cannot sep arate ourselves from our brethren. No truth will more quickly over come divisions among Christian people than the realization that we are equally sinners and equally re cipients of the grace of God. Is there a Christian from another group who seems obstinate in some peculiar doctrine? Is there another Christian in your church whom Page 51
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker