The Realm of Truth

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     The word "fellowship" is a rendering of koinonia, the sharing of a common life. Fellowship in Christ is the sharing of the life of the Holy Spirit. It originates with the Spirit by whom we are all immersed into one body, it is sustained by the Spirit of whom all imbibe or freely partake. All who are in Christ are in the fellowship and whatever things were required to bring them into Christ constitute the only conditions essential to entrance into fellowship.

     Fellowship is not endorsement or Jesus could not be in the fellowship with any of us. It is not perfect conformity or none of us could be in the fellowship with

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Jesus. Fellowship is not harmony. It is not the fruit of harmony. Instead harmony is one of the goals of fellowship. We are not in the fellowship because we are in harmony but we strive to come into harmony because we are in the fellowship.

     Every sincere immersed believer in Christ is in the fellowship in spite of the degree of his ignorance or mistaken views. To disregard or not recognize him as a brother in the Lord reveals our own blindness rather than his alienation. Even though he may be involved in a sectarian establishment he is God's child, my brother beloved, and in the fellowship.

     I have thousands of brethren who know nothing about the restoration movement or its historicity. Some of them hide behind strange walls with diverse names. But they are my brothers and I love them, not with that detached love which some affect for the world but with the warmth of family affection which extends unstinted hospitality.

     Fellowship in Christ is not conditioned upon a certain understanding or a correct position relative to societies, instrumental music, the millennium, the support of orphan homes, cups, classes or colleges. No opinion related to any of these must ever be allowed to sever our relationship. To allow our relationship in Christ to be affected by such matters is to demonstrate that a view or opinion about one or more of them is valued more highly than the blood of Jesus which makes us one. Our hope of heaven is not contingent upon our freedom from error but upon our attitude toward it.

     I am not a living member of a fragmented body. I am a part of the one body and through its head I am joined to every saved person on the earth. The only way I can disown any of my brethren is to sever myself from Jesus. It is more difficult to work with some than with others, because of their attitude. Divergent opinions act as barriers, but love can conquer where argument fails. If the prime purpose of debate is to restore unity I will just start with unity and discuss our problems as a brother and not as an enemy.

     Nothing that anyone can ever do short of forsaking my Lord will cause me to leave him. We are caught up together in God's mercy and all of us are monuments, not to our brilliance or spiritual attainment, but to His boundless grace. We must receive one another as He receives us all.

     "My children, love must not be a matter of words or talk; it must be genuine and show itself in action. This is how we may know that we belong to the realm of truth" (1 John 3:18, 19). The realm of truth--that is the domain to which I seek to belong, and the way to do so is made plain.