The Purpose of God’s Fellowship

I think some Christians today have the wrong idea about what God wants when we fellowship with one another. In my previous years as a Christian I began to accept that Christian fellowship was just about hanging out and having fun with other believers. Then I began to notice a side effect, which was the problem with boredom. One of the methods we try to do to defeat being bored is to have an activity that tops the previous activity because the previous one is no longer fun. Even if it was fun and exciting we want to add more to that excitement because we love spending time with people who are dear to us. It reminds me of a heroine addict who gets his first hit of paradise (so he thinks) and when he takes his second hit later on he realizes that it’s not the same so he has to take a double dose his third time around. Now we all know what drug users look like when they’re not high on life by their favorite cocktail right? That’s what Christians look like when they aren’t being entertained by a desired activity. They began to look restless and that’s why we see Christians bored after Church services as well as bored at bible studies.

Now I know what people might be thinking and that is, “is it wrong to have fun and go to places with fellow believers?” of course not. The wrong that I want to point out is not our fun and location but our purpose, which leads to the question of “what is the purpose of this fellowship?”

Of course we know the answer to this, the purpose is God, but it is very difficult if not impossible when we are busy trying to fulfill the problem of boredom with entertainment and excitement? The right approach to fulfill the problem of boredom is the let God to be the entertainer of excitement and not the world. Now we see two ways we can choose to tackle this issue of boredom and those choices are to allow God be our entertainer of excitement or allow the world to entertain us with excitement.

I want to continue to share the other bad side effects I have seen when we allow the world be the main consumer of our excitement and entertainment. Since God is out of the picture in this part of our life that means we are less likely to study the bible and since the Word is not in us because of the lack of study, we are perceptible to the sinful nature and we are more likely to sin without noticing. For example we loosen the restraints on making fun of people to the point where it's a personal insult, we share other people’s personal problems to everyone, and gossip is no longer wrong in the eyes of the believer. This is bad for Christianity because one of the reasons why people choose to be around Christians is to get away from people who do such things. The other bad effect from boredom is we over indulge in materialistic activities for example movies, television and videos games or for women make-up, clothes and looking at pictures. This is not to say that these activities are wrong but the over consumption of standard entertainment, which makes us less aware and excited with what God has already offer us as Christians is wrong. (example: we tend to forget and be less appreciated about what God has already given us, and because of that we expect God to do more for us in order to make us happy)

Now that we have mention just a few of these tragedies let us see what is possible when we let God be the central of our entertainment for our excitement. Now that God is in the picture and not just in the picture but is the main subject in the picture, our objectives begin to change. We no longer look at activities as a source of entertainment for our excitement, but we look at them as tools of opportunities to build relationships and to build trust with each other. And in the end we can help each other grow spiritually so that we can be more affective to our service to Christ our Lord and Savior.

So when we take the latter approach and make God our source of excitement, we begin reading our bibles and our hearts begin to open to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We are more excited about building relationships than our activity and we are more excited about helping each other grow spiritually than our location, and that’s what we are looking for. No matter how many things we do and no matter how many places we go to, we will always be tedious with what the world has to offer, but we will never be tedious with what God has to offer. If we are true to God and His word, then He will be true to us. If we make Christ our source for life and not the world our source for life then, and only then will we begin to see what God has to offer us, for it is written that He is the Bread of Life.

John 6:33-35

"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

John 4:13-14

Jesus answered and said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

John 4:34

"My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work."