What Is Fellowship?

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Friday, January 01, 2010

And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. - Acts 2:44

"Fellowship" is a great word that Christians often use. But do we know what fellowship originally meant in the early church? The word "fellowship" used in Acts 2 is the Greek word koinonia. It is a difficult word to translate into English because of its many shades of meaning. It can be translated "fellowship," "communion," "community," "communal," and "friendship." The word encompasses so much that believers do together.

But fellowship is more than socializing. Anyone can socialize. The idea of fellowship is that we come together to commune with God and commune together. It is when we get together and talk about the things of God. And God loves it when we talk about Him with each other. Malachi 3:16 says, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name." The word "listened" could be translated, "to prick the ear, to bend down." When we speak of the things of God, He bends down to listen.

Fellowship is praying together, serving together, giving, and yes, even growing older together, dying, and going to heaven. It is what we do together as the family of God.

And fellowship with God and fellowship with others go together. When you are walking with God, then you will want to be with God's people. And if you don't want to be with God's people, then maybe you are not walking with God as you ought to. Because I have found that the closer I am to God, the more I want to be around godly people, and the more I want to influence others to live godly lives.