October 2020: God’s faithfulness leads us into fellowship with Him

Oct 1, 2020 | Word of the Month

Dear brothers and sisters,

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). Whenever I read this Bible passage, I think about all of you. We each lead our own lives. We live through our ups and downs, at times filled with fear, and then also filled with joy again. Our comfort is that God is faithful! He does what He says He will do. For us human beings this may not always be perceptible, especially since we only know a tiny portion of the divine plan which He has in store for us.

It is God who has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. He calls us, He elects us – not the other way around. He knows each and every one of us better than we know ourselves, and He knows about everything. And He leaves each one of us the freedom to heed this call or not.

God calls us into eternal fellowship with Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This is something that Jesus Himself confirmed: He wants us to be with Him where He is. But we are already in the fellowship of life with the Son of God in the here and now. We stand together with Him in all situations of life:

  • even in our own sufferings we struggle to remain in fellowship with God.
  • we support Jesus in His mission, and proclaim the gospel by doing good works.
  • we never forget about this mission at any point in time, but rather make it our highest priority.

God calls us into the fellowship of the believers—that is, into the church.

  • We want to be together and take action together, pray together, celebrate together, and work together.
  • We want to strengthen our unity and strive against discord: we avoid rumours, leave the past in the past, and talk about the good things, not the bad things.
  • We serve one another and do not make any distinctions between consumer and supplier: each one of us can contribute to the wellbeing of the community.

God ultimately also calls us into the fellowship of Holy Communion.

  • This is a foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb.
  • It reminds us that Christ shared everything with mankind, including suffering and death. It gives us the strength to battle and struggle, just as He did.
  • It strengthens our brotherly fellowship among one another. The same bread and the same wine, and the one celebration of Holy Communion, is provided for all of us. What would we do without fellowship?

Thank You, Lord, for making it possible for me to be part of this fellowship!

Warm regards,

Jean-Luc Schneider

Source: nak.org