Fellowship That Doesn't Involve Munchkins

I grew up a Baptist. When I hear the word fellowship I can't help but think of Munchkins and coffee in Styrofoam cups in the church basement. In the church circles that I traveled in as a child, fellowship always involved food, usually of the sugary and caffeinated variety.

In 1 John 1, John uses fellowship in a very different way. John says that he (and the other disciples) had a remarkable fellowship with God through Jesus. Since Jesus was fully God and fully man, John got to interact with God in a way few humans ever have. I don't know about you, but I have a temptation to be jealous John. I think it must have been remarkable for him to walk and live and dine with Jesus each and every day. The fellowship of the disciples with Jesus seems so unique. Yet, John says a remarkable thing in 1 John 1. He says that you and I are able to have the very same fellowship with God. Verse 3 says: "that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (ESV). John says the Gospel is proclaimed so that you and I might have the very same fellowship that he had. We have the same opportunity to know God in a deep and intimate way.

I guess we might wonder how that is possible. After all, we can't walk with Jesus like John did. But Jesus can walk with us. Through the Spirit, Jesus lives inside of us and we know Him in a very real and tangible way. Perhaps we know Him even more deeply than John and the disciples first did. For if Jesus is not experienced by our eyes and hands and ears, He is experienced by our hearts and souls and minds. That is even better fellowship than Munchkins. It is our experience of Jesus that is the heart of what true fellowship is about.