Phil. 4:10-20, Our Objective: Edification, What church (4)

What kind of church do we see in the New Testament that promotes edification?

v A fellowshipping church. 

By fellowship we don’t just mean having potlucks.  Fellowship is the sharing of the life of Christ by the assembly of believers.  One way to see how this works out is through what I like to call, “The All Alone Bible Study.”  It’s taking the Greek word allelon, usually translated one another. 

o   Knowing God.  In the passage about church organization we see that coming to the knowledge of the Son of God is an aspect of church life (Eph. 4:13).  To the beloved (i.e. the body of believers) Peter exhorted them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pt. 3:17-18).

o   Being holy. Holiness involves fellowship. For example, there is the fellowship of discipline for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5).  In a “body life” passage Paul told the Philippians not to complain and argue that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil. 2:14-15).

o   Doing good works.  In the great passage that encourages churches meeting together (Heb. 10:24-25) one of the things the church is to do is to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.  We are also reminded of how much the Philippian Church served as fellow-ministers with Paul (Phil. 1:5; 4:14-16).

o   Love and unity.  By definition “fellowship” is tied to “love and unity.”  Thus we read in 1 Cor. 1:10, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

o   Sound doctrine.  In John’s third letter he deals with the matter of receiving the itinerate preachers and teachers that were common in the NT church.  John said, We therefore ought too receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth (v8).  He then went on to point out Diotrephes who hindered sound doctrine by refusing to receive these ministers, and Demetrius whose testimony was good.  In Eph. 4:14 (again, the great passage on the Church) sound doctrine (not being blown by every wind of doctrine) is a mark of a healthy fellowship.

o   Standing firm.  The writer of Hebrews calls the believers to exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13).  Later, in 12:13, he calls them to make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.  These are issues of steadfastness, of not straying from the path we walk with the Lord.