What makes a church a church? The preaching of God’s Word is certainly the foundation of a good church. It is the power of God unto salvation. And the Bible says by the foolishness of preaching that men are saved. But just preaching alone is simply evangelism. And a church is more than just evangelism. It must also be fellowship.
The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia, which means sharing, communion, association and intimacy. So by the Biblical definition, the church is not defined by a building, or programs, or whether there is all the usual trappings of religion. The church is the body of Christ that is bound together by a sense of fellowship, or sharing in the lives of one another.
Paul used a phrase in Philippians 3:10 from which we can glean even more insight into this idea of what fellowship is about; “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings”. Now this certainly refers to our conformity to the death of Christ by dying to our flesh and the world. We may suffer some of the same things that Christ suffered, like loneliness, or abandonment or rejection, and we can have fellowship with Him through knowing that He also suffered those things and through His comfort. But I also believe that it speaks of a fellowship with the body of Christ, the church, as we suffer also with one another.
So how do we have fellowship with Christ’s sufferings? We can have fellowship with His sufferings by reaching out to other members of His body who are suffering. We are all members of the body of Christ.
1Corinthians 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” So our spiritual gifts are given to minister service to the members of His body. And suffering is something that all Christians will share in, sooner or later. In fact, your suffering should equip you to sympathize with those other members who are suffering. Before you suffered, other’s suffering may not have seemed so significant. But as you suffer, it prepares you for being able to help others.
God comforts people with people. Even Paul needed human companionship. Even preachers and teachers can get despondent. Paul said in 2 Corinthians that he was comforted by the coming of Titus. We all need human encouragement.
As Paul finished up the first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 16, he said, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Kissing may have been a cultural thing in those days, but as I was thinking about it, I realized that there may be something about kissing that should still be relevant to our church today. We need to be intimate with one another. We need to touch one another. You know, Jesus could heal with just a word. But very often, Jesus also healed with a touch. As people in the body of Christ, we often need a human touch. That willingness to get involved in one another’s lives in a physical, practical way is what is so often missing in our churches today. But when we are conformed to the image of Christ, and participate in the fellowship of His suffering, we should be found ministering to the needs of the body - the sufferings of His body - His church.
