The Fellowship of the Mystery

"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord."

And further in 1 John 1:6-7 we are told

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do
not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin."

So what does it take to enter into this Fellowship with Christ and with us, the
Christadelphians? That my Brethren and Sisters is the mystery...The mystery of Christ.
Paul tells us this in Ephesians 3:8-9

"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make
all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ...."

Only by His Truth and Spirit in us can we fellowship with one another. We cannot
delight in God together, nor worship Him, unless our eyes have been opened and we have
been called to the understanding given us through the Truth. Paul tells us in his letter to
the Colossians 2:2

“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the
mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

And to receive and maintain that fellowship we must heed the scriptural advice found in
Acts 2:40-42

"Then those who gladly received His Word were baptized; and that day about
three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. "

Receiving that Fellowship is contingent on receiving the Truth.

The truth is ostensibly a "narrow" thing. Jesus declares this in saying in Matthew 7:13

"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life."

This "way" he afterwards speaks of as "the Truth," saying,

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;"
and also,
"every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

The narrowness of the truth is one of the obstacles to its general acceptance.
People do not like to be constrained either in doctrine or practice. It is also one of the
causes of the tendency to corrupt the Truth. Which has manifested itself from the very day
it was apostolically established over 2000 years ago. It is inconvenient to be under
restrictions in our dealings with fellow men in the Truth or out of it. If it were a question
of choice, we would all prefer absolute freedom. But no one recognizing Christ as the
supreme teacher can think of freedom in that way. If we make freedom our rule, we can
only have the freedom of those who set Christ aside altogether, saying in the words of the
wicked "Our tongues are our own: who is Lord over us." None who truly know Christ
would desire this freedom. All who sincerely accept Christ will recognize his law as
superior, however much we would like to disagree with it..

It is also one of the narrownesses of the Truth that it demands of those who
receive it, that they "contend earnestly for it,". Wherever Truth is opposed or corrupted,
at our place of work, in our home, or anywhere we are, when we allow it, when we look
the other way, we are accepting it. This narrowness of policy is so contrary to natural
friendliness that it is easy for us to drift away from it, and to invent theories to rationalize
it, to relieve us from its constraining and unpleasant obligations. But we must. We cannot
just think to ourselves that the offender of Truth is wrong and not let them know about it.
We cannot allow the offender to believe that we agree with them. Our silence represents
our consent. We don’t have to be rude about it. We don’t have to be demanding.

For Paul tells us in his letter to the Phillipians in Chapter 2, verse 1
"...if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of
the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through
selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better
than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for
the interests of others."

By asserting our beliefs and enticing thought by the offender we are inviting fellowship.

In 1 John 1:3-4 we are told
"...that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have
fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full."

Now we as Christadelphians believe fellowship is with those who believe, not
unbelievers Reaching out to unbelievers is evangelism, not fellowship.

In the differences between the Parable of Sowing and the Parable of the Tares,
Jesus Tells us difference. The Parable of the Sower tells us that some seed fell on good
ground. There is a definite and intended contrast in the Lord’s parables between the
“tares”, sown in the midst of the ecclesial field, and the “thorns”, which are outside the
Ecclesial field. But the “tare”” or “darnel” is a very troublesome weed found in wheat
fields. It was thought at the time of Christ to be a corrupt form of wheat. It looks exactly
the same as wheat until late in its growth cycle. Its seed is similar in size and shape, but is
gray in color; its fruit is very scarce. When present in a field with good wheat, the roots of
the two are intertwined. Thus the darnel can’t be successfully separated from the good
wheat until at the time of harvest. Thankfully, it causes no danger during growth, but even
a little will spoil the finished product! So in when considering Fellowship, we must look to
the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. There we find that even those who appear as we
do, appear believing what we believe are sometimes in err.
It would seem that, in practical terms, this parable is designed to teach us that most
of our time should be spent in sowing the good seed instead of rooting out those who may
or may not be unacceptable to Christ at his judgment. If there is ever any doubt, Christ
says, as to a brother’s “fellowship” standing, then let him grow until the harvest, when the
infallible Reaper will decide his case.
“Let both grow together until the harvest”. Some would contend that this
commandment refers to the apostasy outside the Ecclesia. But if this were the case then it
would be a pointless commandment, for we have no responsibility there — in the churches
of Christendom — at all. Our only freedom of choice lies in the “Ecclesial world”. And
Christ very clearly is telling us there will arise a questionable class within the ecclesias that
cannot be discovered and extricated without the risk of doing grievous damage to the true
wheat. He is pointing out to Ecclesial laborers their inability to judge perfectly, and thus
their inability to be always certain that they are uprooting tares instead of wheat. And
furthermore he is implying that the “roots” even of the wheat might be weakened by
continual agitation.

And so we fellowship only those who hold similar beliefs. And this is upheld by
scripture in 2 John 9-11.

"Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have
God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If
anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into
your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds."

and again in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21
"...the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to
God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the
cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table
and of the table of demons.

And again in II Corinthians 6: 14-18

"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an
unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are
the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk
among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore Come
out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is
unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My
sons and daughters.”

And again in Ephesians 5:8-11
"...you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of
light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. "

These last two verses were very personal to me. While I believe that they pertain to all of
us equally in terms of who we associate with in our daily lives, they were no doubt
repeated to my wife before we were married, she having received the Truth and I not in
fellowship at the time of our marriage over ten years ago.

"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an
unbeliever? . Therefore Come out from among them and be separate, says the
Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

At the time I thought, how dare they. I was not in darkness. I believed the Truth.
So much so that I was baptized many years before. I was baptized in this very building, in
the Baptismal behind me now... But not by Christadelphians. And therefore not in
fellowship. It was hard for me to understand at the time why I could not fellowship with
those that I shared beliefs with. Why they thought me unequal. I was examined by a few
Brethren from Kouts and while they were in agreement with my beliefs, I could not
Fellowship because I was not willing to be re-Baptized.
To me Baptism is a very personal thing, a covenant between a man and God. It
has nothing to do with having witnesses before you. It has nothing to do with who does
the immersing. It has nothing to do with the where, the when. It has all to do with the
why.
The why for me the first time was because I was called. The why for me the
second time was because my family was called. Christ himself tells us in Matthew
10:34-36

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace
but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against
her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s
enemies will be those of his own household."

Because of my pride and arrogance, because I tried to fulfill the calling before it’s
time, I was the enemy in my own household. You see, Brothers and Sisters, in my haste
to fulfill my calling, I was Baptized of my own accord many years ago. But just like
Uzzah who reached out to steady the Ark of the covenant, I took matters into my own
hands. It was not what God wanted at that time. The time wasn’t right, not because I
didn’t have understanding. It wasn’t because I walked in darkness. It was not time
because I did not have Fellowship. That all important fellowship that we have been
talking about all along. Brothers and Sisters and family and friends who share one mind
and one hope. It took quite a while for me to realize that Baptism without fellowship is to
no avail as is fellowship without Baptism. And looking back, all my defiance did was
exclude my family from that all important fellowship. Because I delayed my baptism, my
wife missed out on that fellowship. All that time we could have had in the presence of the
Lord wasted. For again we are told in Matthew 18:20:

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them."

And who on earth do you spend more time with but your spouse? And were we not joined
in accordance to His commandment and in His name? As we look to these emblems
before us, as they pass from hand to hand, each of us renewing the covenant that we made
at our own baptism, let us rejoice in the fellowship we have with each other through His
pain, His suffering and in His name. Because that fellowship for most of us does not end
when we leave this room. It does not end when we say goodnight, it ends only when we
are apart. We share in the Fellowship of Mystery.