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    Scriptural Fellowship
    Scriptural Fellowship
    Scriptural Fellowship
    Ebook115 pages1 hour

    Scriptural Fellowship

    By Dr. Shelton Smith

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    About this ebook

    The fellowship of a Christian is scripturally designed to be with other Christians who are in proper scriptural fellowship with God. In many churches today, the natural desire for fellowship has been allowed to cross these boundaries. We are told that to be loving Christians we must fellowship with those who teach doctrine contrary to the Bible and with those who do not walk in obedient fellowship with the Lord. In seven chapters, Dr. Shelton Smith takes an in-depth look at the proper basis for our fellowship as it is presented in the Bible. In a day of compromise, he makes a clearly defined fundamental case for ecclesiastical separation. Fellowship was ordained of God as a means of building up believers in the Faith. When fellowship is based on the false foundation of compromise with error, however, its effect is just the opposite.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSword of the Lord Foundation
    Release dateNov 12, 2015
    ISBN9781311667908
    Scriptural Fellowship

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      Book preview

      Scriptural Fellowship - Dr. Shelton Smith

      Scriptural Fellowship

      by

      Dr. Shelton Smith

      P. O. Box 1099 • Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37133

      (800) 251-4100 • (615) 893-6700 • FAX (615) 848-6943

      www.SwordoftheLord.com

      Copyright 2005 by

      Sword of the Lord Publishers

      Distributed by Smashwords

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (printed, written, photocopied, electronic, audio or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

      All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible.

      CONTENTS

      1. The Fellowship Thing

      2. The New-Testament Lines of Demarcation

      3. To Fellowship or Not to Fellowship

      4. When Separation of Fellowship Becomes Necessary

      5. A Practical Checklist for Church Conflict

      6. Love and Unity, Shift and Drift

      7. No Scripture Justifies Ecumenical Togetherness

      Appendix

      Chapter i

      The Fellowship Thing

      A Clearly Defined New-Testament Concept

      "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

      And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.—I John 1:3,4.

      Fellowship Is a Significant New Testament Idea

      The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia. It is a very intriguing concept and a very strong New Testament word. It is, however, a word that gets misused in all kinds of religious circles, and in many instances it is absolutely prostituted.

      In the early part of I John, chapter 1, the real basis for New Testament fellowship is explained and established.

      When I was a college student and a seminary student in the denominational schools, everybody, even those who didn't know Greek, would go around saying, "Oh, the koinonia. Oh, the koinonia. It was so lightly and so flippantly employed that it was a mere catchphrase in those days. It was consequently inappropriately applied with frequency. If someone had a Christian bumper sticker on the back of his car or if he carried around a Christian token—a rabbit's foot or something—then it was thought that we ought to embrace him, wrap our arms around him and be buddies, even if that's all the Christian he was. If he was in your group, then no matter what he believed and practiced, you were supposed to fellowship" with him. That meant you would preach for him. It meant you would have him preach for you, etc.

      Very, very clearly this passage indicates that the basis of New Testament fellowship has to be something much more solid than that. Let's examine it biblically.

      I. Scriptural Fellowship Requires a Born-Again Company of Believers

      "(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

      That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us....—Vs. 2,3.

      The starting gate for scriptural New Testament fellowship is the new birth. If we do not have a company of genuine believers, the fellowship concept is thwarted from the outset.

      You can live in the world without becoming a part of the world (John 17:11,16), and we can minister to the unsaved society without seeking our fellowship there.

      Furthermore, it is necessary that we have close fellowship with our brethren.

      "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

      By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.—John 13:34,35.

      We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.—I John 3:14.

      Now we believe those truths as we do all other Bible truths, and it is our devoted intention to practice them. We, by the grace of God, will always make it our business to love our brothers and sisters in God's family.

      Unfortunately, there are a lot of immature or ill-advised Christians who take this principle and make it the sole basis for fellowship. It is the only standard they have, but, as we will see shortly, it is not the only scriptural standard.

      We begin here, but we would be foolish if we did not accept and adhere to the rest of the principles which the Bible gives on the subject.

      II. Scriptural Fellowship Has Doctrinal Roots

      That which was from the beginning...—I John 1:1.

      What is that talking about? Isn't it obvious? That which was from the beginning has to have some reference to creation. But we have the theological gurus who are sitting in pseudo-educational institutions and occupying pulpits all over the land, who do not believe the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Am I supposed to hobnob with those rascals and have them on my platform? I don't think so. Can I have biblical fellowship with them? I don't think so.

      When we were in Kansas City in the late 1960s, I was a student at the SBC seminary there. At the same time I was also the pastor of a church across the river on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas. The pastor of the First Methodist Church in our town lived directly across the street from me. I would see him outside periodically, and because we were neighbors, we got acquainted. He kept saying, Oh, you have to come to our fellowship that we have here in town. It was one of those ministerial deals.

      Now please understand that in those days the entire crowd with which I was associated did those things. I never had before, but one day I let him talk me into going to a ministers' meeting at his church.

      From the front steps of my church there was an open field across which I could see his church. Though it was a thousand yards or more, I walked over. The minute I walked into the room, I could hardly breathe. Most of them were smoking. The pastor of the First Christian Church was sitting at a table smoking a cigar. There was plenty of food, so I sat down to eat and listened out of both ears. I knew right away I was not where I wanted to be. I heard conversations that were off-color and some that were otherwise off-base.

      I didn't know any of them except my neighbor, and I have tried over the years to forget a lot of what I heard at that meeting—most of it was stuff I wouldn't repeat to anyone, and sadly it was coming from the clergy in town!

      I wolfed down the food that they offered, and I did something that I just don't do: I played the I'm- so-busy routine. Oh, it was so nice of you to invite me, and I'm glad to meet everybody, but I really have to get going, and I left. Gladly I left! And I never went back! Today I would handle it differently; I'd probably make an announcement before leaving. No, today I would not go in the first place!

      That was a long time ago, and I've learned a lot of things since then about what to do and what not to do, with whom I should and should not run. But I knew even then that I couldn't run with those rascals and that I couldn't fellowship with them. I knew it would violate what I stood for. I knew it would require coming off the stand I was making. I knew I could not compromise to do it.

      I simply cannot be in league with things like that. I can't go to the Billy Graham crusades or anyone else's meeting if it has an ecumenical bent to it. If I did, then I would be a compromiser, because the basis for biblical fellowship has to be a doctrinal one—it has to have a truth basis. There has to be some agreement, some camaraderie, around this body of truth that we have in the Bible. There is a good deal said about that here.

      That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you (vs. 3). In these ecumenical love fests that are common around the country now, even here in our town, are they openmouthed and vocal to declare the things that we have seen and heard? I don't think so! They will agree on a few select things about which they'll talk, but there are a whole lot of things that cannot be mentioned.

      They agree to get together. They agree to love one another. They agree not to mention anything which would keep them from getting together and expressing their admiration for one another. But don't

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