Fellowship dies when Christians take one another for granted and stop making a special effort to be with each other. While technology has bridged the communication gap in an incredible way, it can never replace being with fellow believers in the same space and time. In the context of such meetings, you get to know fellow believers and they also get to know you. You see their needs and can do what you can to meet those needs, as was the case in the early church.
We must be deliberate about several activities if we are to maintain unity among ourselves as God’s people. Here are a few of them.
1. We must grow in our understanding of the gospel and of Christian truth in general.
Unity in the faith cannot deepen when it is only based on nice feelings, good music, and vague words. You can get those things anywhere in the world. They are superficial and never sustain rich, lasting unity. Christian unity is based on truth. The more truth we have in common, the closer our affinity is to one another. That was why it was important to start this book with two chapters on what God has done to secure our unity. It is the doctrinal bedrock on which Christian unity is built. Without that foundation, any form of unity among believers is fickle. It will not survive. If we are going to experience deep, long-lasting unity, we need to encourage Christians to think deeply about doctrinal truths.
That is one reason God has given the church elders who labor in the word and doctrine. It is to enable believers to grow in their knowledge of Christian truth. As they do so, they will minister to one another and to the world with a unity that will withstand the attacks of the evil one. This is what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote,
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11–13)
This unity of the faith is a doctrinal unity. It is attained as believers are regularly taught by their shepherds. The fruit of this is an equipping for ministry so that the body of Christ grows qualitatively and quantitatively. The phrase “Doctrine divides but love unites” is true only where people are prideful and divisive. In other words, people divide by misusing doctrine. Sometimes doctrine divides those who are in serious error from those who are seeking saving truth; it divides between those who espouse heresy and those who have the true gospel. That kind of division, sad though it is, must be recognized because one group makes up the mission field and the other group comprises the missionaries. Why should the two hold hands in the dark? Where there is the fruit of the Spirit, genuine humility enables individuals to be patient with those who sincerely want to learn. Instead of division, there is great fellowship around God’s truth in an ever-growing way. Those who are filled with the Spirit are not indifferent to heresies in the church. Rather, they continue to pray for the end of divisions caused by heretical teachers.
2. We must grow in love and concern for other believers.
When the apostle Paul noted the fragmentation in the church in Corinth over every conceivable obstacle (the personalities of their leaders, food sacrificed to idols, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, and so on), he gave them a principle that would overcome these obstacles, and especially the competitive spirit over spiritual gifts.