Fellowship

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Acts 2 v 42.

Not Fellowshipping with Darkness

That word 'partaker' means a 'fellowshipper'. Some people see this as a prohibition upon ruffian behaviour - laying hands on somebody. Some people see it as church behaviour - laying on of hands. There we have to be careful, if we are laying our hands on people, praying for the sick and needy, because, when we lay hands on people, following the Old Testament typology in the matter of the offerings, we are identifying ourselves with that person. When hands were laid on the goat that was for the wilderness on the Old Testament Day of Atonement, the sins of the people of Israel were transferred to the goat in a figure. They were identifying their sins with the goat that was going to be lost. We identify ourselves with Jesus and His righteousness is imputed to us. He was made sin for us. We are identifying ourselves with Him, but we must be careful not to identify ourselves with sin and evil. There is much, which is demonic that has to be discerned. Keep yourselves pure! Do not be a partaker of other men's sins! When we come round the table to break bread together, the Word of God tells us quite clearly that we cannot share together with those things that are wrong. We cannot share together the bread and wine with those who are living lives that are flagrantly immoral. We cannot share the bread and wine with those that are not saved. It is not right, because we are having fellowship, we are sharing in common and we cannot share in common with that which is evil and opposed to the Lord. Let that first be put right - for we are not rejecting a person - and then we can have fellowship one with another. That is the Word of God. We must be careful also in our personal lives that we do not fellowship with that which is of darkness, because we would be identifying ourselves with it.

Not Unequally Yoked

A Little Leaven

Paul said to Timothy, "Keep thyself pure!" (I Timothy 5 v 25) Why? It is important to live lives that are more than just putting on a good show. You may think that what you do in the week between Sundays is none of my business, and what I do is none of your business. On the contrary, it is everybody's business, because we fellowship together. There was a village in Derbyshire, Eyam, that was contaminated by the plague in the seventeenth century. The vicar of the parish gave the instruction and leadership that nobody was to leave the village. Many died, but because of their sacrifice, the plague did not spread to other villages. Do you see the parallel? One person comes into a village with the plague and before long it spreads. One person comes into the assembly with impurity, because of wrong associations outside of the assembly life and the effects spread and contaminate. We are sharing together, one with another, in a full fellowship. If you are living unequally yoked, or in fellowship with what is wrong or evil and you are knowingly in that situation, compromising, then there will be a contamination of the fellowship.

Paul said, in I Corinthians 5, concerning the man in the assembly at Corinth who was living in an immoral relationship, that the assembly had a responsibility to deal with that situation. As the man was unrepentant, he was to be cast out and cut off from the fellowship. Why was this necessary? Because "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." A little bit of yeast in the dough spreads through the whole of it. Leaven, in the Scripture, is a symbol of evil. A little bit of evil spreads. So we must be careful in these things that our fellowship is not with what is wrong. You may think that something is a harmless little association during the week sometime. It may be a connection with a club or society .... be careful! Is it right before the Lord that you should be involved in that particular thing, or that particular activity, with those particular people? If you have got to bring the Gospel to them; shine it to them, but do not go along with their wrong ways. You have got to lift people up, not to be dragged down by them to their standard. Remember, what you do affects the whole assembly, the whole fellowship. That is why Paul wrote so severely to the Corinthians about one man. People may have said that Paul should not judge, that it was up to the man how he lived his own life. No it is not, because he was part of a fellowship of God's people, and that fellowship must be kept pure.