Fellowship as a Holy Habit

Disagreeing doesn’t mean that we can’t have fellowship. We are different. We will disagree. Diversity is good. But we need to disagree well. However, I think it important to include this element in our thinking. We are human. Life, and the church, is messy, and can be chaotic. We need to recognise that, and not be too hard on either others or ourselves. It is also perfectly appropriate to hold different views on certain things. But we need to treat each other respectfully and in love. It is important to me that I can have, and be in fellowship, with folk with whom I disagree. It does not, of course, mean that any significant/serious issues should be ignored. Those are in a different category that is not part of this Holy Habit. 

In Romans 16 Paul specifically and personally greets a whole bunch of the Roman Christians. Quite a lot of people are named. That is significant. Together they form the Christian community in Rome. Paul wants them to get on with each other in the right way, to be in fellowship. That’s why he warns them about what can go wrong. 

But what does fellowship look like? It’s probably not all that easy to describe it. It looks like you and I getting on with each other, working together, supporting each other as we seek to be disciples … intentionally trying to form the Holy Habit of fellowship. I guess the word that works best is love.

We get a helpful description in 1 John 3:14-18 – “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another

............  This is a brief extract from my YouTube video, made for Eastern Synod, offering a reflecton on the Holy Habit of Fellowship - to see the whole thing - Fellowship as a Holy Habit (Eastern Synod URC)