Sweet fellowship

I remember reading a story about a group of Americans who were prisoners of war in Vietnam. They were emotionally and physically abused in many ways but they said the worst thing they had to endure was isolation. It was a strategy that was used to make men give up hope.

Four of these men, when they were in a cell together for a short time, seized the opportunity to work out a type of Morse code to communicate with each other. They would tap on the floor or the cement walls of the cell. As they were working in the courtyard they would shovel and shift rocks in rhythm. In this way, the men would always be communicating with each other without ever speaking. When they were split up, they taught other prisoners their ‘Morse code’ and soon hundreds of men knew this system of communication. Those telling the story recounted that the prison sounded like a woodpecker’s den. But by this means, the prisoners were able to encourage and support one other. Many were in isolation for up to seven years but survived because of this ‘contact’ with other prisoners. They were having fellowship.

In the Psalms, David wrote, ‘We who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng’. Psa 55:14 Fellowship is not just something that we talk about or aspire to. It is something that we genuinely participate in. Other translations of the Bible call it ‘sweet counsel’ because very often our fellowship is a conversation. In the church, fellowship is based on the following truth. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, ‘We who are many are one body of Christ and individually members one of another.’ Rom 12:5. Likewise he told the Corinthians, ‘For the body is not one member, but many’. The foot can’t say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body’. Nor can the ear say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body’. 1Cor 12:14 -16. Sometimes, we feel quite forlorn wondering whether we actually have a legitimate place in the body of Christ. But, neither can we feel superior to any other part. We cannot say, ‘Because I’m an eye and have such a great ministry of seeing I don’t need a hand’. No individual part is independent of any other because we are many members working together in one body.

Paul described many men as ‘fellow workers’. They were ones who worked together with others to build the body of Christ. He also wrote of fellow soldiers who fought ‘the good fight of faith’ and fellow prisoners who suffered hardship together for the gospel. The proposition is simple. If we are not fellow ‘somethings’ we are not having fellowship together. Fellowship must be practical and real. But of course, it is a risk to pursue ‘sweet fellowship’ because we risk being hurt. As David said in his psalm, ‘For it is not an enemy that reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exulted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend.’ Psa 55:12-13. It is a risk to pursue fellowship but it is also has great reward. It can be very ‘sweet’.

Nathan Smith

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Feature Articles
June 2009

The love of God

Preparing the way

Unrestrained lips

Redeemed to be sons

As for me and my house

Sweet fellowship

Effective households

Freedom

Setting goals

Pray without doubting