Who Needs Fellowship?
Some people live semi-opaque lives, deciding to tough it out and go it alone when facing the challenges of life that confront them. This is not what God recommends.
Do you recall our Lord’s words to those on the scene when Lazarus came out of that tomb— “loose him and let him go”? Contemplate for a moment some of the significances of these words.
Lazarus was the product of God’s miraculous, supernatural power—as are we! Even so, Lazarus was still in need of others to help him get free. And aren’t we also in need of this help?
This is really what the burden-bearing ministry is all about. We can go through life looking like death if we want to, but instead of being so wound and bound by the vestiges of death, the believer can get much-needed help from fellow believers.
The Awesome Assignment
How awesome is this burden-bearing assignment! God has given us the high privilege of participating in his resurrection miracle! God’s part in this, the generating of new life, is something only God can do, of course. But there is something we can do for each other that is extremely important. We can help set a person free from that which, like the grave clothes of Lazarus, hinder one’s daily walk.
For Lazarus, the miracle would have been less sure, and his testimony would have been less impressive, had this help not been given. Had Lazarus remained in the condition he was in when the resurrection miracle first occurred, the new life God just gave him wouldn’t have seemed so good. Instead, the miracle of resurrection would have become a sad and strange spectacle. It is in this context that we should realize that all the “one another” statements in Scripture are as much as a command from the Lord to us today as his words about loosing Lazarus were to the tomb-watchers in that day.
In the same way that Lazarus couldn’t set himself free, we can’t set ourselves free. We all need the help other believers can give. And therefore, not to offer this help, or not to receive it, discredits the great miracle of resurrection.
A.W. Tozer wrote, “The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes.” Offering a further comment about this predicament, Tozer said, “the grave clothes trip them up every time they try to move on a little faster.” Ralph Harris was exactly right, “Christians waging secret war against the flesh have no chance of winning .…” Everyone who attempts such a thing will experience acute and chronic defeat.
A Forbidden Fight
No one can examine all the “one another” principles and still think God sanctions private battles against the flesh. British-born scholar T. Austin-Sparks wrote, “Fellowship, relatedness, interdependence in the Church which is his Body … are basic laws for safeguarding divine interests from the dangers of independence and personal dominance.” On our own, we will fail in our fight against the flesh. That’s why we need believers committed to us if our commitment to the Lord is going to succeed.
William Gurnall, the 17th century British writer, reminded us: “that that “the saint’s safety lies in communion, not in solitude and single devotion.” Of those who struggled alone, “concealing their temptations from others,” Gurnall remarked: Their struggles and sorrows grew despite “their own private endeavors and wrestlings in secret against them.” God never wanted us to go it alone. Why, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto!
In complete agreement, C.S. Lewis declared, “No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as ‘what a man does with his solitude’ … the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion.”
The Chief Hindrance
The chief hindrance’s kind of fellowship is the widespread practice of Christians pretending not to have any problems. Christians putting on their everything-is-all-right masks will deliberately participate in a conspiracy of silence. This super-saint image we love to project—everything is under control, everything is just fine, thank you—isn’t exactly new. Moses used this tactic a long time ago.
Perhaps you’ll recall that when Moses came down from the mountain, he soon discovered that the blinding light beaming from his brow (a reflection of the Shekinah glory of God) made it necessary for him to wear a veil. There just wasn’t any way Moses could communicate with his people—not as long as this overpowering illumination continued to supernaturally shine!
After a while, however, Moses came to know something the people didn’t know—the glory was beginning to fade! So what should he do—remove the veil and let that fact be known to one and all? Or should he keep the veil on, so his esteem wouldn’t go down in the peoples’ eyes?
What in fact Moses did we can all easily identify with because we ourselves have done much the same thing: Moses kept the veil on, intentionally communicating what he knew wasn’t true: that his mountaintop experience with God was as strong in its impact now as it ever was.
So what veils are we hiding behind? The Bible says we’re to confess our faults to one another and to pray for one another so that we might be healed. Are we thinking, then, that we’re without any faults, or the need for prayer, or the need for healing? That’s what the veils we’re hiding behind communicate.
The Bible also says we’re to encourage one another, to forgive one another, and to bear one another’s burdens. So, have we no need for encouragement, no sin to confess, no burden to bear? Again, that’s what our veils are communicating.
In truth, we all wear veils, inasmuch as there is a distinct difference between our outer shell, the image of ourselves we present to the public, and the inner person, where core feelings and more vulnerable attitudes exist under protected cover. The biblical call to fellowship is a summons to: 1) remove the facades that mask our inner selves; and 2) to increasingly reveal the thoughts and feelings that abide there, especially the ones that are defeating and destructive.
F.B. Meyer declared, “If Jesus is the center of our heart-life, we must be inevitably drawn with all those to whom he is also first and best.” Accordingly, Thomas Watson, one of the great Puritan preachers, said, “Love to our heavenly Father is seen by loving his children.” To give this love, and receive this love, pleases God and blesses us with a fellowship that wonderfully meets our need.
Dr. J.W. Phillips is the author of Pursuing Fellowship, volumes 1 and 2. These books, by examining all the "one another" verses in the Bible, provide a cameo-sharp picture of fellowship and the driving dynamics that make it work.
