The Fellowship Of The Spirit

by Johnston, Brian, D. | Category: N/a | Sept 2005

Paul closes the second of his two letters to the Church of God at Corinth with the benediction: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all (2 Cor.13:14). How, we may ask, did Paul expect this characteristic grace of the Lord Jesus to be displayed? Surely it was in the disciple lives of his Corinthian friends: by their gracious conduct with each other. Paul's spiritual wish was also that the love of God might be with them. How would God's love be evident? Once again, it must have been the apostle's expectation that this quality of love emanating from God would be evident in the relationships which the disciples enjoyed with each other. Finally, Paul expresses the longing that the fellowship of the Holy Spirit might be with them. It does not seem reasonable that this should be translated as 'fellowship with the Holy Spirit'?. Since the subject of the benediction was equally the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, this also properly refers to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This was to be demonstrated in the same way as the grace and love; that is in the lives of the disciples. Their fellowship was with each other, but it consisted of their joint participation in things of mutual interest which derived from the Holy Spirit Himself.

The kind of unity this brings is once again Paul's theme at the end of Philippians chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. In fact, it's in that section that Paul again makes his other specific mention of the 'fellowship of the Spirit' (2:1). Here, as at Corinth, the 'fellowship of the Spirit' signified the practical demonstration of unity among disciples who, in the New Testament churches of God, constituted overall the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor.1:9, see also Acts 2:42).

Johnston, Brian, D. | Sept 2005
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