Fellowship is very important too as a practical issue, for if we get fellowship right as well, we shall find that the Lord's purposes will become clear to us and we shall know that we are walking in the place where God wants us to be. We will have an assurance in our hearts: it is wonderful how it works. I feel that I John 1 sums it up very clearly, that we have a fellowship that is a fellowship with the Father, a fellowship with the Son and a fellowship one with another.

It also tells us not to have fellowship with evil things, with darkness. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. There is a wonderful cleansing operative when we are in this place of fellowship. We shall find that there is cleansing in reading, knowing and taking heed to the Word. These are very practical issues, because if we are in the right place, being filled with the Holy Spirit, if we have got sound doctrine and know what the teaching of the Scripture is, then these will be of practical use in our Christian lives. You see, a lot of people get confused about doctrine. That is why we read that verse in Ephesians which says,

People seem to get confused about doctrine and will not have anything to do with it. That is a wrong attitude. Doctrine is so important yet so simple. When we have that sound doctrine then we can go on in the things of the Lord.

What we so often mean and understand by fellowship is probably not what the Scripture means by fellowship. We often say on a Sunday evening, "We'll have a time of fellowship afterwards - a cup of tea or coffee, biscuits, cakes and a chat." Or, maybe we'll arrange a football match with another group and afterwards hold a barbecue. "Come and have a good time of fellowship," we say.
What we understand in these instances is probably what the world understands by fellowship and that is having a good time, fun, socialising with others and then going home. But that is not really it. In the New Testament it is something permanent. It is the result of our Oneness, our unity in Christ.
We could say that Christian fellowship is true communism - but do not confuse that with the corrupt, worldly, atheistic systems. In the Greek, the word koinonia means just that. In the Bible it is translated by the words 'communion', 'fellowship', and 'distribution'. It means 'common-ness' or 'having things common'.
Marxism and Marxist-Leninism were and are miserable failures because they reject God.
'Koinonia' can only work when God is in the centre of it. Communism will never work in this world, but Christian fellowship is a beautiful reality to those who are saved. Koinonia is sharing, not in the sense of partnership or equal shares. There is a Greek word for that - metoche - and that word does carry with it the idea of equal sharing, possessing together. But koinonia bears the meaning of each one having a full share of everything. So when we are brought together into the body of Christ as Christians, we are brought into a community where each one of us and all of us together have a full share of everything, not part shares, but full shares. We are one Body: we have been baptised by one Spirit into one Body. We have a full share of everything - all things are yours (I Cor 3 v 21). We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

It is sad that, in view of all that, we can be so separated from each other. Therefore, if we are separated, we are also powerless, because the things that God wants us to have are in the fellowship of His people. In I John 1 v 7, it says,