Communion And Prayer

by J. Miller | Category: Public And Collective Prayer | Jun 1961

An English dictionary gives a number of explanations of the word "communion," such as "mutual intercourse between persons (which is similar in meaning to commune or talk with), fellowship, communication, a body of Christians who have one common faith and discipline." The word "commune" has two derivations. As coming from Old French it means to communicate or talk with, but as derived from the Latin it means to have in common. We must therefore keep clear in our minds when we read the Scriptures these two thoughts, (1) to talk with, and (2) to have in common. "To commune " in the sense of "speaking with" (Hebrew Dabar which is the verbal form of the same Hebrew word for Word) is of fairly common occurrence. In Genesis 23.8 Abraham communed with the children of Heth about a burying ground to bury the body of his wife Sarah. Hamor communed with the sons of Jacob about their sister Dinah, and later Hamor and Shechem communed with the men of their city (Genesis 34.8, 20). The queen of Sheba communed with Solomon (1 Kings 10.2). Job's three friends communed with him (Job 4.2). This was a communing in which they sought to condemn Job. The Song of Songs is another kind of communing, in which the bride and her lover cannot speak too highly of each other. The LORD communed with Abraham (Genesis 18.88) and so did He with Moses (Exodus 25.22; 31.18). These are specimen cases from the Old Testament of communion in the sense of" speaking with." In the New Testament we have the communing (Homileo, to be in company with and to converse, to talk) of the two on the way to Emmaus, Cleopas and his friend (Luke 24.18-15), and the communing of Felix with Paul with a view to getting money from Paul (Acts 24.26).

We must not allow ourselves to fall into error by supposing that this idea of "talking with" is the meaning of Koinonia, "communion or fellowship," as used in the New Testament. In a word we must not confuse Homilia, "intercourse or conversation," and Koinonia which means a "sharing in common." Koinonia is derived from Koino8, "common." Whether you think of Koinonia as applied to (1) a number of people together holding the same doctrine (Acts 2.42; 1 Corinthians 1.9), or (2) think of it as in 1 John 1.8, 6, 7 as that receiving of divine revelation by the apostles from the Father and the Son and communicating it to others who were believers who should hold it in common among themselves, or (3) sharing in things material, as in Romans 15.26, 27, the idea of sharing and having in common runs through every use of the word, Koinonia, "fellowship or communion.

Out of this confusion of thought between Dabar, "to speak," (in the Old Testament), with prayer, and Homilia and Koinonia with prayer, may emerge serious error in the matter of prayer, and to whom prayer should be addressed. For instance, one hears prayer being made to God the Father and then interspersed throughout the prayer the Lord is addressed. This has ever been a puzzle when one has heard it, as to who was being addressed, whether the Lord is the Lord Jesus or God the Father?

If those who pray in such a manner are basing their use of "the Lord" on 1 John 1.8, that our fellowship is with the Father and the Son and therefore we may pray to the Lord Jesus as well as to God the Father, then it is entirely wrong, for Koinonia, fellowship here means a sharing together. We have only to think of the verses which follow to see this, for we are not only to have fellowship with God, but with one another and if fellowship means prayer in the one case, it must bear the same interpretation with one another. Here the case breaks down completely. If the Lord Jesus is being addressed in collective prayer equally with the Father, then why either begin or conclude the prayer, that it is being made through the Lord Jesus Christ?

If collective prayer is to be made to the Lord Jesus, then why not to the Holy Spirit? There are some we know who do pray to the Holy Spirit. Happily these misguided believers are not in the Fellowship. But is it not true that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, not three Gods, but one God? It is also true that the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Spirit is Lord, not three Lords, but one Lord. It is just here that we must not be guided by reason but by revelation. The Lord Jesus while on earth taught His disciples to pray to their Father and said, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matthew 6.5-15). When the Lord went back to heaven, He sent forth the Holy Spirit from the Father as He had promised (John 15.26). The Holy Spirit is equally the Spirit of the Son as He is of the Father. "Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4.6). The blessed Spirit cries from the hearts of the sons of God, "Abba, Father." See also Romans 8.15, where it is said that by the Spirit we cry "Abba, Father." Thus believers are taught by the Lord to pray to their Father, and the Holy Spirit teaches us to cry, "Abba, Father."

In the economy of things as revealed to us in the New Testament, approach to God by saints on earth is clearly stated in Ephesians 2.18: "For through Him (Christ Jesus) we both (saved Jews and Gentiles) have our access in one Spirit unto the Father." This is crystal clear, through the Son, in the Spirit, to the Father. Approach to the Divine Being is neither to the Son nor to the Spirit, but to the Father. The Lord said, "No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14.6). In John 14.18, the Lord says, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." This is in line with the whole tenor of prayer in the New Testament, asking from the Father in the name of the Son. But this clearly enunciated truth is blurred by the introduction of "Me" in the following verse (14), in the R.V. on doubtful authority, "If ye shall ask Me anything in My name, that will I do" It will be seen that the Revisers say in their marginal readings that "many ancient authorities omit Me." The American revision committee omit " Me in the text. "Me" is also left out by Darby, Young and others. It would therefore be perilous to found a doctrine of praying to the Lord Jesus on a disputed text, while the rest of the New Testament shows that prayer is to God. Though the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are truly and fully God, co-eternal and co-existent with the Father, yet in the present mediatorial work of the Lord, the divine arrangement is as stated by Paul, in 1 Corinthians 8.6, "To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him."

J. Miller | Jun 1961
Public And Collective Prayer