From the very beginning the early Christians experienced a peculiar sense of unity. Christ is at once the center of this unity and the origin of every expression of fellowship. Sometimes the fellowship is essentially an experience and as such it is scarcely susceptible of definition. It may rather be regarded as a mystical union in Christ. In other instances the fellowship approaches or includes the idea of intercourse. In some passages it is represented as a participation or partnership. The terms occur most frequently in the writings of Paul with whom the idea of Christian unity was a controlling principle.
In its various relations, fellowship is represented: (1) As a communion between the Son and the Father. The gospel record represents Jesus as enjoying a unique sense of communion and intimacy with the Father. Among many such expressions those of Mt 11:25-27 (compare Lu 10:21-22) and Joh 14:1-31 through Joh 15:1-27 are especially important. (2) As our communion with God, either with the Father or the Son or with the Father through the Son or the Holy Spirit. "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1Jo 1:3; compare also Joh 14:6,23,16). (3) As our communion one with another. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1Jo 1:7). Sometimes the idea of communion occurs in relation with abstract ideas or experiences: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph 5:11); "the fellowship of his sufferings" (Php 3:10); "the fellowship of thy faith" (Phm 1:6). In three passages the relation of the fellowship is not entirely clear: the "fellowship of the Spirit" (Php 2:1); "the communion of the Holy Spirit" (2Co 13:14); and "the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ" (1Co 1:9). The fellowship is probably to be understood as that prevailing among Christians by virtue of the grace of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
It is not to be inferred that the idea of fellowship is limited to the passages in which the specific words for communion are used. Some of the clearest and richest expressions of unity and fellowship are found in the Gospels, though, these words do not occur in them. In fact, perhaps, the most familiar and forcible expressions of the idea are those in which they are represented symbolically, as in the parable of the Vine and the Branches (Joh 15:1 ff) or in the figure of the Body and its Members (Mt 5:29 ff; Ro 12:5; 1Co 12:1-31).
Russell Benjamin Miller