Chapter 22 Day 18 Experiencing Life Together

Day 18 Experiencing Life Together Each of you is part of the body of Christ, Chosen to live together in harmony. (Colossians 3:15, CEV) How happy and happy brothers and sisters live in harmony! (Psalm 33:1, modern Chinese translation) Life is meant to be shared. God’s original intention is for us to experience life together. The Bible calls this sharing of experience fellowship. Today, “fellowship” has lost its original meaning in the Bible. Now “fellowship” often refers to “chatting, socializing, and having fun.”Today, "Where are you fellowshipping?" means, "Where do you attend the church?" "Please stop for fellowship" usually means "Please stop for tea."True fellowship is not just attending meetings, but also experiencing life together, which includes selfless mutual love, sincere sharing, practical service, sacrificial giving, compassion and comfort, and all the commands about "one another" in the New Testament.

The number of fellowship members is very important, and smaller is better.Of course you can worship with a large group of people, one person does not count as a fellowship.When a group exceeds ten people, someone stops participating, often the one who is the quietest, and the group begins to be dominated by a handful.The Lord Jesus trained a small group of disciples, and He could call more, but He knew that the group size could not exceed twelve if everyone were to participate. The body of Christ, like our body, is composed of many cells.The life of the body of Christ is like our body, it lives in the cells.Therefore, every Christian needs to join small groups in the church, such as family fellowship, Sunday school, or Bible study.True fellowship happens here, not in large gatherings.If you compare the church to a big ship, the small group is the many lifeboats on it.

God has many amazing promises about small groups of believers: "Where two or three gather in my name, there I am in their midst." Sadly, even being in a small group does not guarantee that you will experience true fellowship Life.Many Sunday schools and small groups are superficial and don't know how to experience real fellowship.What is the difference between real and fake fellowship? True fellowship life allows us to experience sincere A sincere fellowship life is not superficial and superficial chatting, but frank and heart-to-heart talk, and sometimes even heart-to-heart sharing.This happens when people are honest about who they are and what their life experiences are.They can share pain, talk about feelings; admit their failures, open up their doubts, admit their fears, recognize their own weaknesses, and ask for help and prayers from others.

Such sincerity may be the exact opposite of what you see in certain churches.Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, there are falsehoods, pretense, political maneuvering, superficial politeness and superficial dialogue.People wear masks and guard against others everywhere, showing a happy and beautiful look.Such an attitude kills the fellowship.Only when we open our lives can we experience true fellowship.The Bible says, "If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another...If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." The world thinks that intimacy takes place in the dark, but God but said to be in the light.Darkness hides our scars, mistakes, fears, failures, and imperfections; but in the light, we bring them all out and confess who we are.

Of course, it takes courage and humility to let others know who we really are, and doing so means confronting our fears of revealing, of being rejected, of being hurt again.Why would anyone want to take that risk?Because it's the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy.The Bible says, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." We grow only by taking risks, and the hardest of these risks is being honest with ourselves and other people. True fellowship where people experience mutual relationship A mutual relationship is one of giving and giving, a two-way effort.The Bible says: "God designed the body so that we can understand how to live together in the church. All parts are interdependent." Mutual relationship is the core of fellowship life: establish a reciprocal relationship, share responsibilities and help each other.Paul said, "I want us to help each other by faith. Your faith will help me and my faith will help you." Our faith is strengthened when someone walks with us and encourages us.The Bible calls us to hold one another accountable, to encourage one another, to serve one another, and to respect one another.Over fifty times in the New Testament, we are commanded to be "one another" and "one another" in various matters.The Bible says, "Pursue things that are peaceable and things that build up one another's virtue."

You are not responsible to every believer, but you are to them.God expects you to do what you can to help them. In real fellowship people experience compassion Sympathy is not offering advice or giving convenient superficial favors; sympathy is entering into another's suffering and sharing it with him.Sympathy is: "I understand where you are now, and your feelings are neither strange nor crazy." Modern people call it "empathy" (empathy), but the Bible uses "sympathy" (symPathy).The Bible says, "If you are God's chosen people . . . have sympathy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

Compassion can satisfy two basic human needs: the need to be known and the feeling of being accepted.Every time you understand and affirm the other person's feelings, you create a fellowship.The problem is, we are so rushed through things that we often don't have time to empathize with others; or we are preoccupied with our own pain.Self-pity dries up our compassion for others. There are different levels of fellowship, and each has its own appropriate timing.The simplest level of fellowship is sharing and studying God's Word together.The deeper level is the fellowship of service, such as participating in missionary or caring work together.The deepest and most intense level is the fellowship of suffering, in which we enter into each other's suffering, grieve together, and bear each other's burdens together.The Christians in the world who know this level best are those who have been persecuted, despised, and martyred for their faith.

The Bible commands us, "Share each other's problems and burdens, and in doing so you will keep the law of Christ." In the moments of greatest crisis, of pain, of sorrow, of doubt, when we need each other most, that is When we need the body of the Lord most.We need a small group of friends to carry us through times of faith.In small groups, even when God appears distant, the body of Christ is real and visible.This is what Job desperately needs in his time of suffering, when he cries out, "Let his friends show mercy to him who is about to lose heart and forsake the Almighty, who does not fear God."

In true fellowship people experience mercy Fellowship is a place of grace where mistakes are not rebuked but erased.Fellowship occurs when mercy trumps justice.We all need mercy because we all stumble, fall, and need someone to help us get back up.We need to be merciful to one another and be willing to accept merciful mercy from others.God said, "When a man sins, you should forgive him and comfort him, lest he lose heart and give up." There is no fellowship without forgiveness.God warns, "Don't hold grudges against people." Because bitterness and resentment destroy fellowship.We are all imperfect sinners, and in the long run we hurt each other; sometimes unintentionally, sometimes on purpose, but no matter what, it takes a great deal of mercy and grace to create and maintain fellowship.The Bible says, "You must forgive each other's faults and forgive those who offend you. Remember that the Lord has forgiven you, so forgive others also."

God's mercy to us is the motive for our mercy.Remember, God will always forgive you more than you will forgive others.When you are hurt by someone, you can make a choice: Do I use my energy and emotions to retaliate or to resolve?You can only choose one of two. Whether or not the other party asks to be pardoned, the pardon must be timely.Trust takes time to rebuild; trust requires an admissible record.If someone has repeatedly hurt you, God commands you to forgive him immediately, but God does not expect you to trust him right away, and you don't have to allow him to continue hurting you.They have to rely on time to prove that they have changed.The best place to rebuild relationships is in a supportive group environment that provides encouragement and accountability.

A small group committed to real fellowship has many other benefits and is a necessary part of the Christian life and should never be underestimated.For more than 2,000 years, Christians have gathered in small groups to live in fellowship.If you've never been to any groups, you're missing out on so much. In the next chapter we will explore how to create this kind of fellowship with other believers.Hopefully this chapter has made you long to experience this true fellowship of sincerity, reciprocity, compassion, and compassion.You were created to fit and fellowship with each other.