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If "baptism" is the Biblical concept most misunderstood by the religious world, "fellowship" would have to be the one most misunderstood by the Lord's people.

Many of those of the institutional persuasion have so-called "fellowship halls" built at the church's expense and existing solely for social interaction. However, the "fellowship as socializing" misconception does not only prevail in institutional churches; in my experience, most otherwise faithful Christians have no idea what Biblical fellowship is.

I first began seriously considering the issue of fellowship when I became aware of the "days of Genesis" controversy. It seemed to me that some brethren were being inconsistent when they made proper understanding of the word "day" in Genesis 1 a condition of fellowship. I asked several people who took this position their reasoning, but few would (or perhaps could) answer. The most memorable answer I heard was that if someone misunderstood the first chapter of the Bible, how could they understand the rest correctly? I pointed out that we have several different interpretations of the last book of the Bible, yet never made that a condition of fellowship.

Indeed, I recalled one of the signers of the letter mention that the church he was at accepted premillenial brethren into fellowship (albeit on the condition they not teach that doctrine), something that had been taboo for nearly a century in most churches. When I asked about the difference between Genesis 1 and Revelation of another signatory, he excused the difference by saying that Revelation was a book of signs and mysteries; apparently, to him, whether we parted ways over a difference of understanding depended on how hard something was to understand. This would have, of course, been news to Peter.

So, I began to study the matter of fellowship. During this personal study, I requested articles and/or sermon outlines regarding fellowship on an email list, thinking that might help. Imagine my surprise when each of the 7 or 8 pieces I received advocated a position different in some way from all the others! I taught a class on the epistles of John sometime after that and found at least four distinct opinions among participants on what fellowship is or is not. And not long after, I was handed a flyer for a potluck at one member's house inviting me to come for a "night of fellowship." While this may say as much about my teaching abilities as it does our collective understanding, these experiences also convinced me of one basic fact: We have a fractured concept of fellowship.

Some have the idea it's social interaction, taken from our institutional brothers and reinforced by the non-Biblical term (and idea) of "disfellowship." Almost everyone (incorrectly) believes it's an action and so we (incorrectly) express it as a verb: "The church fellowshipped him." And more than once I've heard the nails-on-the-chalkboard sound of it applied to some doctrine: "I heard he fellowships social drinking."

I'd like to spend a few posts over the next week or so looking at the idea of fellowship from a Biblical perspective. It's not important what I think about fellowship, but it is important to look at what God has said. What is it, with whom do we have it, and with whom do we not have it? What does the Bible say?