THE GIFT OF FELLOWSHIP!

THE GIFT OF FELLOWSHIP!

Mal 3:13-16

13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord . Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord  of hosts?

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

16 Then they that feared the Lord  spake often one to another: and the Lord  hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord , and that thought upon his name.

           Malachi chapter three is about more than money! There have been so many references to verse 10 that it is easy to think that this chapter is all about tithing but it is actually a mirror of our current times. Worship had deteriorated into a series of forms and rituals while the hearts of many were asking if it was vain to serve God. Most saw no benefit in it but a few remained faithful.

           Merriam-Webster says that “fellowship” is the condition of friendly relationship existing among persons; a group with similar interests. There are three characteristics given to those who were faithful.

           They feared the Lord! The word “fear” suggests a reverence that adjusts one’s morality. It is a respect that causes one to change or to be different. It is respect with honor. It caused them to depart from evil and to keep God’s ordinances. Some withdraw from fellowship with other Christians knowing that the light of fellowship is accountability and their present behavior can’t endure the light.

           They spake often one to another! They mutually encouraged one another. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said: “Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast and lies prone on the meadow. In the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together. The social element is the genius of Christianity.”

           They thought on His name!  They meditated on the person of God. Much of our thinking is about ourselves; our needs and our comfort but these thought on the various aspects of God. God was in their heart. God listened in! When we are casually having fellowship with other believers God hears and records it.

Ps 119:63

63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

Dear Lord, thank you for the sweet fellowship of other believers. AMEN