Thoughts on Fellowship
W. Carl Ketcherside
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We are joined and knit together as a body (Eph. 4:16). We have access in the one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18). We must be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" seeing that there is only one body and one Spirit (Eph. 4:3). So long as the Holy Spirit dwells in any man he is bound by an invisible cord to heaven; and by the same token, he is bound to every other person in whom the Spirit abides. This is "the fellowship of the Spirit" (Phil 2:1). Because we sustain that relationship we are urged to "complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind" (verse 2). We do not come into the fellowship because we are of the same mind, or have the same love but we come to be of the same mind and have the same love, because we are in the fellowship. God brings us into fellowship through grace; we grow together by mutual eagerness to maintain that unity.
One of the greatest tragedies of this age has been the lack of eagerness to maintain unity. There has been an eagerness to divide but a decided reluctance to unite. Men have no fear of separation, but live in mutual dread of ending it. Nowhere does the word of God counsel division among believers. In scores of passages unity is urged, but we could not be more divided if the word of God had commanded it. No one is so unpopular in some circles today as he who speaks for unity. Brethren take counsel together to stop the mouth of one who pleads for it, and if they cannot stop his mouth, they stop their ears. This is the sad state to which Christendom is reduced by our littleness, fears, frustrations, bigotry and hatred. Is it any wonder that under such circumstances we seek and earnestly look for scriptural warrant for our procedure? We have charted our course by ourselves; we must
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Think of the frightful cleavages that invest the realm of Christendom. If you disregard the great division between Romanism and Protestantism, and regard only the latter as filling the nominal Christian domain, behold the almost three hundred sects and cults which cumber our own country. If you restrict your narrowed vision to the heirs of the restoration movement, you must contemplate no less than twenty-five splinter parties, each one belaboring all of the others as sects and factions. Nor is the end yet, for the germ of the seed which has produced this state is not dead or dormant, and there must follow more division, factionism, strife, contention and bitter debate. We will bequeath to our children and our children's children a legacy of hate and intolerance, so they will bite and devour one another, and long after our bones moulder in the earth, the feuds will go on and damn our offspring to the flames of hell. With all of our modern skills and scientific acumen we have not yet solved the problem of how all believers in Christ can be one. Is it any wonder we cannot solve our national and international problems? The greatest challenge to Christendom today is to find the answer to the prayer of Jesus. There is an answer! There has to be!
Those who love God and revere His word will seek for the answer in that word. But they must learn how to handle it properly. It is a sword, and such a weapon in an unskilled hand may slay more friends than enemies. We want to deal in this little essay with one passage of scripture which we have used in a factional sense. It has been used over and over to create and widen schisms in the body of the Lord. We refer to 2 John 9, 10. "If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed, for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds." This is the handle that has been shaped to fit every factional tool man has invented.
In Tennessee, a man reaches the conclusion that it is a sin to teach little children the word of God in a Bible class in the meetinghouse. This is made his party test, and "If any man bring not this doctrine, receive him not." In Texas, a man decides that the fruit of the vine must be passed to the congregation in one container. That is made his party test and "if any man bring not this doctrine, receive him not." In the same factional strain, one in his congregation concludes that the fruit of the vine passed in that one container must be fermented. This becomes his party test, and "if any man bring not this doctrine, receive him not!" To one "this doctrine" means a special way of breaking the loaf, to another it refers to orphan homes, to another our relation to civil government, to another it has to do with certain regulations on marriage. But whatever the party test, one must bring this doctrine, or he is an outcast, and must be given the cold shoulder, disregarded as a brother and treated like a pagan.
Did the apostle of love intend to create such a conglomerate mess as we now behold? Did he who wrote that "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" also give us instruction to club the life out of them or to drive them out when they could not conscientiously agree with us on some point of interpretation? Did he who said "Any one who hates his brother is a murderer," provide us with a verbal dagger by which to stab our brethren to death doctrinally? Did he who condemned Diotrephes because he "refuses himself to welcome the brethren, and also stops those who want to welcome them and puts them out of the church," lay down a principle which
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Whatever "this doctrine" was, the man who did not bring it was not to be welcomed when he came, nor speeded on his way with good wishes when he left. We are of the opinion that we can only understand what John was talking about by consideration of the background and circumstances under which he wrote. John spent his final days in Ephesus, laboring in the vicinity of Asia Minor. It was in this area that the great error of Gnosticism was affecting the brethren. Ephesus was the home of Cerinthus, a Jew who studied in Alexandria, and who is credited with being the original propagator of the theory which was destined eventually to divide almost every congregation on earth. It is a conviction of ours that John was spared to deal the death blow to this cult of Greek mysticism, even as Paul was destined to save the church from the inroads of a mistaken Judaism.
The first and second epistles of John were written to deal with this problem. No one can rightfully understand them if he ignores this fact. We cannot here enter into a full analysis of Gnosticism, its origins, nature and effects. The word is from the Greek gnosis,i. e., "knowledge." Paul alludes to it in warning Timothy to avoid "the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis)" and affirms that "by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith" (1 Timothy 6:20). Although, because of its speculative nature, gnosticism finally took many forms, it generally denied the pre-existence of the Son of God in some fashion.
Cerinthus taught that God was exalted above all contact with the world of nature and sense, that the world was created by angels, and presided and ruled over by one of them, who was the Sovereign and lawgiver of the Jews. He affirmed that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary by the natural process of birth, but developed and grew in such a degree of wisdom, and of favor with God and man, that he was deemed to be worthy of divine honor. At his baptism by John, the Logos, that is, the divine wisdom and energy, descended upon him, thus making him the Christ (the anointed one). By this supernatural endowment he was permitted to work miracles and reveal the divine purpose, which the Logos could penetrate. Cerinthus further taught that when Jesus was arrested, the Logos left him and returned to the Father, so it was just the man who died, and not God, or the Son of God. One who is familiar with the teachings of the Jehovah's witness cult will at once recognize the similarity in their doctrine and that of the Gnostics.
John wrote to refute this dangerous theory which had already infiltrated most of the congregations during his lifetime. This will explain many of the statements and emphases in his gospel record. He starts it by affirming, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." He declares that "The Logos became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). He begins his first epistle by affirming that he had personal audible, manual and visible witness of the word of life, that this life had pre-existence with the Father, was manifested to the witnesses, and proclaimed to others so they might also have fellowship with the proclaimers, the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3). The message of the proclaimers was that God is light! To say that one has fellowship with God while denying the manifestation of God (in Jesus Christ) is only to lie, and to walk in darkness. "To walk in the Light" (i. e., to be in God) is to be in fellowship with one another and in contact with the cleansing power of the Son of God (1:
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To say one is in fellowship with the Father while denying the pre-existence and revelation of the Son makes one a liar (1:6). "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son" (2:22). There are many kinds of liars, but the one with whom John was dealing while writing this epistle was the one who denied the Messiahship of Jesus. The Gnostic was not a Christian, but an antichrist. These men had created a party or heresy, for we read, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be plain that they are not of us" (2:19). The saints were not to believe every spirit. They were to test the spirits, because many false prophets were abroad. The criterion was simple. "Every spirit which confesses that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God." By this the Spirit of God could be identified (4:1-3). "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God" (4:15). "Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and obey his commandments" (5:1, 2).
We are now ready to appreciate 2 John. It was written to a sister in the Lord. Some of her children were following the truth (verse 4). The congregation may have met in her house. John wrote the same thing to her in verses 5 and 6 that he wrote in 1 John 2:7-9. He tells her "many deceivers have gone out into the world" (verse 7) as he previously said, "Many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). He identifies these as "men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh" (Cp. verse 7 with 1 John 4:3) and labels them in both instances as "antichrist."
In verse 9, he tells the sister, "Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son." The doctrine of Christ is the testimony "that the Father has sent His Son as the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14), that is, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (4:2). Those who go ahead and do not abide in this conviction do not have God, but those who retain this conviction, have both the Father and the Son. As phrased in 1 John 2:23, "No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also." To "deny the Son" in this expression is equivalent to the expression "does not abide in the doctrine of Christ" in the other place.
The instruction is "If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house, or
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Men may have God, and God may have men, who sincerely differ on Bible classes, individual cups, leavened or unleavened bread, fermented or unfermented wine, lesson leaves, baptisteries, and a host of other things. Men may abide in the "doctrine of Christ" of which John speaks, and hold conflicting views about implementation of God's will for us in this age. It is a matter of our attitude toward truth. But those who split, tear and rend the body of God's Son, then try to call heaven's blessing upon their destructive ways, by quoting as justification, "If any come and bring not this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor give him a greeting," are the real factionists and troublers of Israel. Such a spirit is more dangerous to the well-being of the church of God than some "innovations."
Those who profess to be defenders of the faith, may become wreckers of the church; those who pose as champions of orthodoxy may be intolerant advocates of an unwritten human creed. We are not apologists for error, nor do we excuse divisions in Christ, of those who earnestly strive to know His will, but we do not propose to settle our problems by driving out of the house our brethren who disagree. We shall not throw the baby out with the bath water! The members of the present factions and dissident groups need to get on their knees before the Savior lest they he forced to do so before the Judge of all the earth. It is time to repent. Reformation must precede true restoration. Let us all love the brethren, and in that spirit resolve that we shall end factionism and party strife. The night is far spent, the day is at hand!