| (Copyright) by Royce Mitchell, Jr. (Manvel, Texas) |
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| That is a good question! Who exactly should we welcome into our fellowship? Should we fellowship with just anyone? Should we limit it to those who exactly share our opinions of what scripture means? Should our fellowship be confined to those who attend our own group? Or should we expand that fellowship to those who are of other groups? How would we know if someone thought and believed as we do, anyway? What makes any one of us believe that we have the correct understanding of all things, or anything, for that matter? What do we do if a person with whom we have been fellowshipping suddenly seems to have beliefs that do not coincide with our own? For the answer to these questions, we must surrender our own ideas to the clear teachings of Jesus Christ. We are to fellowship; therefore, we must know if any guidelines have been given to us. One guideline we are given can be found in Ephesians 5:11, which says, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (NKJ throughout, unless stated differently). Those who are engaging in works of darkness are to be avoided. Does that mean someone who stumbles and commits a sin? In 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 it is stated, “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. (15) Yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.” Paul, in this instance, was talking about some who were not working but were spending their time in activities that burdened the congregation. Paul used the example of how he had worked with his own hands and did not burden the congregation when he was there. Clearly, if one refuses to work but, instead, burdens the congregation with meddling in things that are none of that one’s concern, that brother should be admonished, and then we refuse fellowship. We certainly cannot admonish a brother with whom we have no fellowship! But, if such a one is sinning, we should admonish him or her, and then not keep company until they repent. This would go hand-in-hand with avoiding those who are engaged in “works of darkness.” As a brother (or sister) we ought to admonish one who is caught in a sin (assuming of course that we have first-hand knowledge of the sin) but avoid fellowship until such is cleared up! We are not to consider them as enemies of the Way, as scripture clearly states. In effect, we shun the one who is in sin, once we have admonished them—assuming that they recognize that they are sinning. But notice what else God says to us about sinners! In I John 5:16-17 we are instructed, “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” We ought to be praying for that brother caught up in the sin! Certainly, we should not fellowship with them, but we must also be praying for them! The inference is that our prayers can be useful in causing a brother to be restored to life! Notice also that the sin is one of which we have first-hand knowledge–we actually saw the sin! Is there anyone else with whom we should not have fellowship? An answer to this question is found in 2 Corinthians 6:14, where it is stated, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” Unfortunately, this scripture has long been abused to mean that we should avoid all who are not of our own group, organization or congregation. That idea is a perversion of this scripture. How do we know this? Continue reading in verse 15: “And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?” This verse is talking about avoiding fellowship with unbelievers, and in particular unbelievers who are associated with Belial—a condition completely foreign to the presence of God! This is not talking about those who keep as many of the commandments as they truly believe that they are supposed to keep. Therefore, we should be fellowshipping with believers then! Who is a believer? What should they believe? How do we know that they are a believer? Where will we find a definition so plain as to enable us to find a believer? Perhaps if we look to this scripture, we can find some initial direction. 1 Tim 2:3-4 shows us, “… God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” It looks like we consider all men to be worthy of fellowship, initially, since God desires them all to come to the knowledge of the truth! But, if we do that, how do we begin to narrow down that list to those with whom we really ought to have fellowship? The truth is, we do not know who it is we should be fellowshipping with until we get to know them! That is how we can see what it is that they believe. That entails, being friendly! Therefore, step one is: be friendly. What is the next step? We should look at the words of Christ when He told us who his mother and brothers were. He said, “And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother,” in Matt 12:49-50. Obviously one who is doing the will of the Father will not be engaged in works of darkness! At least now we have the beginning of a standard by which we can find those with which we should fellowship! It is someone who is doing the will of the Father—at least as much as that one understands it. Attitude is everything! What is the will of the Father? Whole books have been written on that subject. However, let us boil it down to a few items that can give us direction in our search for God’s will. First, our fellowship ought to be with one who keeps the Commandments of God. Secondly, that person ought to have the testimony of Jesus Christ. What scriptures can we find in support of those basic standards? We find in Revelation 12:17 this statement: “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” There is an old proverb that states that the enemy of my enemy is my friend! Whoever the dragon, or Satan, is going off to make war with, could be described as one with whom we would want fellowship. They are those who keep the Commandments and accept Jesus Christ. We should have fellowship with those who worship and obey the very God we do, and who accept the sacrifice of His Son. That is a pretty wide-ranging field. Does that exclude those who keep only nine of the ten commandments? Of course not! Those excluded are those who reject the commandments of God—or refuse to quit a sin, as we have already seen. We will find that there are precious few of those types of people! Is there any in the community of believers with whom we should not have fellowship? This author could not find in scripture any believer, who is not actively engaging in some sin of which we are aware personally, with whom we should not allow ourselves to fellowship! We know that sin is defined for us in I John 3:4, where it says, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (KJV). Our fellowship, therefore, is neatly rolled into one simple definition for us. We fellowship with those who are actively seeking the obedience to God—as much as they know to do! What of those who sincerely believe that the Sabbath is done away, but keep all the other commandments? God knows the sincerity of their heart. It is not our job to convict them; it is our job to love them. They are a subject for fellowship, certainly. How else will they see the beauty of complete obedience to the Laws of God? Some have said that we should not fellowship with those outside of our own congregational groups, or corporate entities. When we appeal to scripture, where do we find such a command? We don’t. The truth of scripture is that, unless people are in active rebellion against the Most High God, and His Laws, we can and should consider them brethren—current or potential—and we should fellowship with them as we have opportunity. What about the Holy Days listed in Leviticus 23? If some don’t keep these days, should we avoid them as sinners? How are we to judge what God has revealed to anyone? The truth is that nobody has the complete truth of the Way of God, and that we will all stand on our own, before the Throne of Judgment, to answer for what we did with what we knew! We will not be called into judgment for what someone else did or did not know! Our judgment will be for what we were given to understand. It is written in Romans 14:10-13, “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. (11) For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” (12) So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. (13) Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way“ (emphasis author’s). We should consider all men in such a way that we do not put a stumbling block in their way. When we engage in argument, and cast doubts on the conversion of others, just because they do not hold the exact same beliefs as we do, we judge them, and by our own attitude, could put a block in front of them that could cause them to doubt the very faith that God has given them. Such would be a grave sin against our brother! We would be boasting in our knowledge: such boasting is arrogance and is evil (James 4:16)! Differences in doctrine are not reasons to avoid fellowshipping with anyone. In truth, our similarities far outweigh our differences. Instead, we should look out for the welfare of each other. We should seek the best for each other and pray for the peace and safety of each other. Let us pray that the Gospel of Christ would be furthered by our individual efforts, and that our combined efforts would be successful in bringing many sons to glory! If we join hands in doing the work of our Father, as Christ Himself said He was to do, then we can rest assured that our ways will indeed be pleasing to God. We have many brethren, scattered amongst many denominations, who desire to keep His Laws and have His Spirit. We likewise have many friends who live lives in compliance with all of the commandments, save one. It is up to us to decide whether or not we will accept all of those children as brethren. It is up to us whether or not we will honor the command of God to maintain the same love, unity in spirit and purpose, with these children. Instead of looking at the ways we differ, let us instead look at how we can be united in love, doing His will, setting the proper example for all, including those who don’t yet keep all of His commandments. (This article has been updated and re-printed from “The Church of God Messenger” March/April 2002—Issue No. 8) ——————————————————————————— Reprinted with permission from: Houston Church of God http://www.houston-church-of-god.org/ ——————————————————————————— |
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