Value Christian Fellowship
“So what is the difference” I hear you ask “between this and valuing the church, which we looked at yesterday?”
Yesterday I was arguing the case for valuing being able to come together to worship God and to be in the place where God’s special blessing is upon His people. This is a bit different.
You can come to church each week, you can engage in all of the elements of worship – praying, singing hymns and songs, studying scripture and go away again without in any sense having valued Christian Fellowship.
You could attend a different church each week and share in true corporate worship but you would not really be valuing Christian Fellowship.
Valuing Christian Fellowship is about really having a love for the people of God as distinct from having a love for corporate worship with the people of God. And both are important.
The Bible uses several metaphors for the local church including that of a family and that of a body, and these serve to underline an interdependence which goes far beyond simply worshiping together. So the question is “how much do you value Christian Fellowship?
One of the things we’ve had taken from us in these days is the freedom to exercise this fellowship and enjoy this fellowship face to face. Surely one of things God is saying to us right now is to express that delight in the Fellowship of the saints as much as you can by other means – phoning, writing, using Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp and in prayer. Using every opportunity to encourage in the Lord, to look to their spiritual well-being, and just enjoying sharing all that we have together in Christ.
And for the future? When by God’s grace it is returned to us as D.V. it will be, then resolve to enjoy it face to face as often as you can, taking delight in one another, and making as much use as possible of every God given opportunity for it over refreshments, at Fellowship Lunches, and, of course, in sharing together in worship of God.
Act 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.