Revival, Parts 6 & 7

The Way of Fellowship: Negative and Positive

We had to take two Sundays to cover this difficult topic. Is there anything more difficult to maintain than fellowship with God or man? We all seek to have our own way. A quote from the little book,
"The fall is simply, 'We have turned every one to his own way.' If I want my own way rather than God's, it is very obvious that I will want my own way rather than the other man's. A man does not assert his independence of God to surrender it to a fellow man, if he can help it. But a world in which each man wants his own way cannot but be a world full of tensions, barriers, suspicions, misunderstandings, clashes, and conflicts.
Now the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was not only to bring men back into fellowship with God, but also into fellowship with their fellow men."*

There are very few chapters in the New Testament that do not deal in some way with the relation of men to God or men to men. We can surmise from that fact that it is important and a problem at the same time. :)

If we are to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1) then there are some things that we are NOT to do. If we hate our brothers we are walking in darkness. If we are contentious, envious, greedy, angry, etc. then we are not loving anyone but ourselves.

In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians we are given a picture of what love should look like. Have you ever put your name in the place of the word charity/love? Let's do that:
Meredith is longsuffering, Meredith is kind, Meredith does not boast, etc. Does that describe you? Be honest. I'm sure some of it will be true some of the time and some of it won't be true any of the time. Paul says no matter the sacrifice we make, if we don't have love it profits nothing. We can give our bodies as martyrs but without love, it will profit us nothing. Think. About. That.

Fellowship with God and man must go together. We must have fellowship with God to have fellowship with man (productive, God-honoring fellowship anyway) and we must have fellowship with man to have fellowship with God. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness (hating our brother), we lie and do not the truth....in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5b and 6)

So, the question is what can we do to promote fellowship with God and man? We are not only called to "get along with" but also to promote the welfare of our fellow man. As I stated earlier, this is a main theme in the New Testament. Here are just a few passages that will help us to have fellowship with our fellows. :)

"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Romans 13:8 & 10

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:1a & 2

"...by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Galatians 5:13b & 14

Ephesians 4:21-32 highlights: Speak every man truth with his neighbor...Be ye angry and sin not...give to him that needeth...speak only that which edifies and may minister grace unto the hearers...be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another

1 Peter 5:5, "Likewise ye brethren, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."


Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, against such there is no law but it is the fulfilling of the law when we do it. You might say we don't have any laws to keep, you would be wrong if you said it though. "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 1 John 1:3-5 All this we do in Christ who enables/empowers us to do it. As David said in Psalm 119:32, "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart."

You know, although my words can minister grace or cause needless division, they are JUST MY WORDS. The words that the Lord has said matter more than anything else in the world though. If we disregard what He says because it seems too hard or too boring then we are of all men most CRAZY. "Surely none are so crazy as those who are content to live unprepared to die." J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men

*The Calvary Road, Roy Hession CLC Publications copyright 1950, 1955, 2001