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Fellowship

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 4, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 9.

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Fellowship

By W. A. S.

The individualist cares not a whit for anybody’s opinion or counsel. He asserts, usually after a characteristic way of his own, the truth that “the head of every man is Christ,” and that if a man has faith, it is “to be according to the scripture, ‘Have it to thyself before God.’”
Nothing is easier for the natural heart than the assertion of an individualism which ignores every principle of the gospel of Christian fellowship.
The real experience of the truth that Christ is the head of every man, brings with it the truth, also, of the fellowship of believers in Christ. The bond that binds individuals to him, binds heart to heart in the communion of saints.
The unsanctified independence, which springs from human selfishness or vanity and love of supremacy, is in striking contrast with the spirit which rules in the church of Christ as thus shown:—
“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
“Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
“Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. . . . In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
These scriptures are like tiny snapshot views of the fellowship side of life in the church of Christ. There was never a man yet who did not need the help and sympathy and guiding and restraining influence of fellowship with the brethren to balance and level up individual traits. He is in the greatest need of it who thinks he has least need of it. W. A. S.