A week ago I did a talk on how fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.
The fourth reason that fellowship or community is spiritual is that Jesus commanded us to do it. Fellowship was not a social benefit added by the church to augment our worship.Community is so important that Jesus addressed it many times. We will look at two of those.
The first is found in John 13:34 where Jesus says, “A new command I give you… love one another as I have loved you.” What is amazing is that he does not say, “love me as I have loved you…” That would make sense. Instead, Jesus says His followers should love each other and everyone as AS HE HAS LOVED US.
Another place where this is reflected is in 1 John 4:11 which says, “since God so loved us, let us love one another…” Again, I would expect it to say that since God loved us, we should love Him. That is NOT what it says…
Herein lies the problem. It is impossible to love people without interacting with them. I know it is very American to “live and let live” and call that love. Actually, that thought comes from Confusious who said, “do not do to other what you do not want them to do to you.” In other words, don’t bug people if you don’t want to be bugged. But that is not Jesus’ definition of love. He said, “DO to others as you would have them do to you.” Love goes first. Love acts even when other people don’t deserve it. That is how He loved us and how He commands us to love others.
Lord, help me to not try to avoid people. Help me to engage them and love them as You have loved me. Help me to go first in loving them. I can only do this by being filled with Your love. Thank You for Your power and strength in my life.
