Fellowship

I just read a message which I regularly receive by email from Pastor Zac Poonen in Bangalore, India. He is a 'Protestant' pastor, in the sense that he does not 'belong' to either the Roman Catholic or the Orthodox 'church', but from my point of view he is simply a man of God, and I, as an Orthodox Christian, make no distinction between him and any other Christian or Church father who is gifted with wisdom and prophetic insight. All wisdom comes from the Divine Logos, the Word and Son of God, Jesus Christ, and all prophecy is 'seeing things as they are' without absolute reference to past, present or future. If these are bestowed on a believer, what does it matter what he is called or calls himself?

What Pastor Zac writes about in his messages is nothing sectarian or cultish, but the plain and simple truth. What he writes about in the message I am reproducing in full below is just another angle on a topic that I write about frequently. Why? Because it cries out to be heard, from the very pages of the holy Gospel. Reading what the pastor has written made me say to myself, 'Well, it's a pity that we Christians can't get along, that we can't follow Christ and imitate His love for us by loving each other, but we are just a tiny, faithful remnant living amidst an unholy, unrighteous, apostate and rebellious crowd of imposters who call themselves 'Christians' and falsely believe that they are 'the Church.' It's too bad that we can't love them and get along with them, but they're just so awful. Even Christ would understand, if only He knew what we have to put up with!'

Yes, this is the kind of inner dialog and self-justification that must be going on inside of us when we separate ourselves from each other, refusing to acknowledge Christ in each other, because of doctrinal differences. Does doctrine matter? Well, yes, it does. Does doctrine guarantee salvation or place us in peril of damnation? I'm not so sure. Does faith alone save? Well, yes and no. Faith without works—that is, without love—is dead, so let me ask, 'Does dead faith save?' I have no problem with 'salvation by faith alone,' as long as the rejoinder is, 'but only the obedient believe—that is, have saving faith.' Yes, we Orthodox 'possess' the living faith of the dead, not the dead faith of the living—or do we? How can we know for sure what kind of faith we 'possess'?

It all boils down to the nature of our loves and our hates. All and everything are worthy of our love—and love means genuine benevolence fully laden with fear of God, with faith and love—and only one object demands our hate—sin itself. Why? Because it is sin alone which murders our fellow men, and ourselves. Let us flee from the spiritual suicide of hating our brothers, by loving not only fellow believers in Christ, but loving all human beings for whom Christ came and gave His life—for Jews, for Muslims, for Hindus, for Buddhists, for the rich, for the poor, for the black, for the white, for the righteous, for the wicked, for our friends, for our enemies—in short, for our neighbor.

Brethren, now here is the message that Pastor Zac wrote this week. Without qualification, let's admit the Truth when we meet it, wherever we find it, and not only when it appears to come from sources we consider 'authorized.' Why? Because this is how the Lord Himself confounded the wise and authorized of this world, by pouring out His Spirit on all mankind, according to His generosity and our capacity. One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father…

Valuing True Christian Fellowship

Zac Poonen

Despite man's advancement in many areas, human relationships continue to present problems all over the world. Business concerns and agencies spend huge sums employing personnel to promote harmony among workers. Well, one might think it is understandable that self-centred, unconverted people find it difficult to get along with each other, but surely when people are born-again and have become new creatures in Christ, such problems can never arise. For, after all, when God is the center of one's life and service, what possible room can there be for the petty problems that besiege others?

Yet, sadly, no proof is needed of the fact that Christians fight and quarrel with each other, all over the world. Many are not even on speaking terms with some of their fellow-Christians; some cannot even stand the sight of certain other Christians. The Name of God continues to be disgraced in the world by the behaviour of professing believers.   Jesus said that the world would identify His disciples by their intense love for one another. This was - generally speaking - literally fulfilled in the first two centuries of the Christian era. The world looked at the Christians with amazement then, and exclaimed, "Behold how these Christians love one another!" Today, the story is different and the world often says, "Behold how these Christians hate one another!"

Relationships are indeed most important. Gifts, talents, methods, techniques, programmes and finances are all secondary to people and to inter-personal relationships. The church can fulfill her God-ordained function as the light of the world only when there is true Christian fellowship among her members. Likewise, an individual believer can become a minister of life to others only when he himself has learned to live according to the law of love with his fellow-Christians.

The Bible plainly and repeatedly teaches that no Christian can have fellowship with God without fellowshipping with other believers. You cannot walk with God if you do not walk in love with your fellow-believer. The cross on which Jesus died had two planks - a vertical one and a horizontal one: Jesus came to bring peace not only between man and God (vertically) but also between man and man (horizontally). The vertical and the horizontal relationships go hand in hand. You cannot have the former if you ignore the latter.

John, the apostle of love, has some very strong words to say on this matter. One of the evidences, he says, of genuine conversion is that a man begins to love his fellow-Christians. If a man does not have this love, it is a sure indication that his conversion is spurious and that he is heading for eternal death (1 John 3:14). Doctrinal correctness was not the only test that the apostles applied to ascertain where a man stood in relation to God. Later on in the same letter, John says that if a man claims that he loves God while hating his brother, he is a liar. Mark that! The proper name for such a man is not "believer", but rather, "liar"! And John's logic is irresistible. He says a brother is visible whereas God is invisible. If you cannot love the visible, it is impossible to love the invisible. (1 John 4:20).

Now compare this with the experience of most "believers." Love for God is usually assessed in terms of busy activity in Christian work or in terms of rapturous feelings of delight experienced in a meeting. These can be most deceptive. I have come across believers who are out of fellowship with other Christians, who testify nevertheless to "wonderful times of prayer" and to "amazing results in service." How could they possibly be walking with God when they have not even made an effort to settle matters with other members of God's family against whom they have a grudge? Surely Satan has blinded their minds to the truth of Scripture!

Often, we do not realise what we deprive ourselves of, when fellowship is broken with other believers. The Bible tells us that we can discover the breadth, length, depth and height of Christ's love and be filled with all the fullness of God only along "with all the saints" (Ephesians 3:17-19). It is only as we know the reality of fellowship with the believers God places us with, that we shall be able to enter into an experiential understanding of the love of Christ and of the fullness of God.

The one who cuts himself off from any fellow-Christian, thereby deprives himself of the experience of Christ's love and grace which could have been his through that person. When we fail to live by the law of love, we rob ourselves of some of Christ's riches and some of God's fulness.