What is fellowship?

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Answer: Meeting with others or having fellowship is an essential element in spiritual growth.  Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition defines fellowship as:  

1. Companionship, Company

2. A community of interest, activity, feeling or experience; the state of being a fellow or associate 

3. A company of equal or friends

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible has six different definitions for the word fellowship. Although these definitions are useful and correct, the simpler one is that fellowship is simply sharing something together.

There are three elements of fellowship in the Bible:

• Purpose

  "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalms 133:1, NKJV throughout)

• Belief

  "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:4)

• Conviction

  "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous . . ." (1Peter 3:8)

• Work - Nehemiah 4:1-23

• Hope

  "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." (Hebrews 11:39-40)

• Faith - 1Samuel 20:30-42

• Suffering - Daniel 3:16-30

• Need

  "Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." (2Corinthians 8:1-15)

2.  It is sharing:

• Father, the Son and Christians

  ". . . that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1John 1:3)

• Christ and Christians

  "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (1Corinthians 1:9)

• Holy Spirit and Christians

  "Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy . . ." (Philippians 2:1)

• Apostles - Acts 2:42

• Believers

  "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1John 1:7)

3.  It is in things shared together:

• Material things - 2Corinthians 8:4

• Suffering - Philippians 3:10

• The Gospel ministry - Galatians 2:9

• Gospel privileges -

  "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now . . ." (Philippians 1:3-5)

• The Gospel mystery

  "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ . . ." (Ephesians 3:9)

Fellowship, as a noun, or as action, demonstrates who we are. It allows us to interact with others who share common beliefs and sentiments. It allows us to recognize our own faults and gives us the opportunity to share in the spiritual growth of others. Moreover, as we have seen and as the Bible confirms, this is highly pleasing in God's sight. We should practice this outstanding spiritual trait whenever we can. Thank you for your question about what is fellowship.