Thoughts on Fellowship
W. Carl Ketcherside
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The act of eating and drinking together had great significance in primitive times. Speaking of the sop which Jesus dipped and gave to Judas, A. M. Rihbany says, "At Syrian feasts, especially in the region where Jesus lived...in a more significant manner these morsels are exchanged by friends. Choice bits of food are handed to friends by one another, as signs of close intimacy. It is never expected that any person would hand a sop to one for whom he cherishes no friendship" (The Syrian Christ, page 49). As a public demonstration of that fellowship sustained by the community of saints, our Lord ordained a feast at which those who are in Him eat and drink together in proclamation of His death.
The very word, koinonia, generally translated "fellowship," is used to describe the Lord's Supper. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (koinonia) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (koinonia) of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (1 Cor. 10:16, 17). You recognize as being in your fellowship every one to whom you pass the bread and fruit of the vine with your permission to eat and drink with you. If I come to the table in your home, and you pass the food to me without informing me that I am not entitled to eat of it, your very act is an invitation to eat. In the case of the Lord's Supper, such an act constitutes a tacit acknowledgement that the person is in the kingdom, a child of God, and a member of the one body. The apostle says, "The very fact that we all share in one Bread makes us all one Body" (Translation by J. B. Phillips).
Jesus said His table was in His kingdom. The disciples were to eat and drink at His table in His Kingdom (Luke 22:30). When you pass the food and drink from that table to a person to allow him the privilege of eating and drinking with you, by that very act you recognize him as a citizen of the kingdom. If not, then there is no significance in your own eating, and you are a mere ritualist. I solemnly charge that almost every segment, fragment and fraction of the disciple brotherhood in the United States, by practice is guilty of extending fellowship to believers and unbelievers, immersed and unimmersed, alike. And if these latter do not eat, it is because of their own volition in the matter, and not that of the congregation. And such open communion is actually the first step to open membership. Why should an alien wish to become a member of a fraternity when he can partake of all the rights, privileges and prerogatives thereof in his alien state?
But I may be asked why I employ the restricted term "brotherhood in the United States?" I do so because our brethren in Great Britain have not been guilty of such foolish procedure. In general they have had a clear understanding of what is involved in the term fellowship, and have acted in conformity with that knowledge.
Recently I had occasion to visit a congregation which claims not to "fellowship" brethren who believe it is proper to have classes for Bible study and individual cups in the Lord's Supper. But they fellowshipped me. They allowed me the privilege of participating in the corporate act of fellowship, the highest expression of the koinonia, in the church of
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Let us get down to brass tacks! Whatever you set up as a barrier to admission to the Lord's table is your creed and your test of fellowship. Would you stand at the Lord's table and say, "We invite all brethren to partake with us except those who believe in Bible classes?" If not, then you fellowship those who believe in classes, regardless of your position on the subject. Would you say, "We invite all brethren to participate with us in this feast except those who hold the opinion it is proper to use instrumental music in worship?" If not, then you fellowship those who hold such opinions. Suppose that a man who was traveling through the country stopped at your place of worship on Lord's Day, and prior to the service informed you that while he was a member of a congregation using instrumental music, he and his family would like to worship and break bread with you on that day. Would you welcome him and invite him to do so? Then you fellowship him, but that fellowship does not constitute endorsement of his position on the point of difference. You differ with many members of the congregation where you hold membership, but you fellowship them. Fellowship is one thing; endorsement of a position or opinion is a wholly different thing.
Occasionally I hear that brethren in some places are disturbed by my articles on fellowship. They think I am "letting down the bars." How can I, when they have never barred any one? The trouble lies in the fact that the brethren are ignorant of the meaning of the word "fellowship" as used by the Holy Spirit, and because they have it confused with endorsement of some person's views, when I speak of fellowshipping all sincere believers in Christ who have been immersed into Him, they think I am advocating swallowing hook, bait and sinker, every innovation, speculation, variation and exaggeration. Yet they have been fellowshipping every one indiscriminately at the Lord's table for years. If a member of another faction comes in, they will run half way across the house to hand him a song book, find the number, and invite him to participate with them in praise to God, but they would not think of calling upon him to pray to God. He can talk to God, teach and admonish, and speak, as long as be has a tune, whether he is in key or not, but he is not allowed to talk to God in a normal tone of voice. That would be "fellowshipping him." Just how silly can we become?
But what test shall we propose? We have no right to propose any. Only Jesus has a right to tell us who is in Him and who is not. We must receive all whom I he receives. "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (Rom. 15:7). What must man believe and what must he do to be admitted to the "breaking of bread" and thus to the fellowship of the Spirit? God has proposed only one fact to be believed, and one act to be obeyed. All who accept that fact with trusting hearts, and obey that act, are inducted into the Christ, become members of the one body, and are in the fellowship of the saints. That one fact is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. That one act is immersion in water prompted by belief of that fact. When a man believes that Jesus is the Messiah and God's Son, and acts upon that faith in God's appointed fashion, he is added to the Lord's company. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
But someone adds, "Provided that he knew at the time that his baptism was for the remission of sins." The word of God does not make that proviso. That is modern Church-of-Christ-ism. When a man believes in Jesus sincerely, and moved by that faith in Jesus as Saviour, is immersed, that act of immersion, is for
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At the inception of the church of God, they that gladly received his word were immersed, and it was those who were immersed who continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. We know of no questions they were asked about methods of teaching, modes of worship, views on the millennium, etc., before being recognized. They were not catechized about their views, opinions, ideas, or expositions of scripture. They were in fellowship because they were in the Christ; they were in the Christ because they were immersed into Him upon the basis of their faith. Their knowledge was far from perfect, differences soon developed, varieties of views created problems, but they maintained their fellowship in spite of their differences. Perhaps before we can recapture that fellowship we will need first to recapture the spirit of love which was a passion with them. Surely the responsibility to seek to restore that unity which they knew and which was such a potent force in the world, offers the greatest challenge that can come to us in these days.