God’s Word for You

Philippians 1:3-6 The doctrine of fellowship

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, February 10, 2026

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 Every time I pray for all of you, I always pray with joy, 5 because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

Paul does not just tell us what to do, he demonstrates it with his own life. He remembers this congregation in his regular prayers. And whenever (“in each time,” ἐπὶ πάσῃ) he prays about them, he thanks God for them. Paul considers the Philippians themselves to be a gift, and so he thanks him for this gift as he does for any and every other gift that God gives (2 Corinthians 9:15; Psalm 75:1). Paul says the same thing to the Colossians: “We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you” (Colossians 1:3).

These prayers of Paul are always done “with joy,” and here we come to a word which occurs again and again in this letter, fourteen times in all as either a noun (joy, χαρά) or as a verb (rejoice, χαίρω). This kind of gladness is an emotion that results from God’s good gifts. Paul allows himself to express the feeling here, but not because salvation depends on a feeling. Quite the reverse: salvation is based entirely on the fact of Jesus’ suffering and death to atone for our sins. Knowing that and believing it, and applying it to my own life, are what trust is. Even this trust is a gift given by God (Ephesians 2:8) so that we will not boast about it (Ephesians 2:9). But knowing that we are saved through Christ is bound to produce a happy response in our hearts, and this is the joy that Paul is talking about. And he feels it when he prays about the Philippians because he knows that they love Jesus, that they know Jesus, that they are saved by Jesus—and he got to be one of the instruments God used to bring that message to them. His joy is like that of the angel who perched atop the stone on Easter and declared, “He has risen from the dead! And I got to be the one who told you” (Matthew 28:7).

Another source of Paul’s joy is on account of their fellowship in the Gospel. Fellowship (koinonia, κοινωνία) is a sharing or partnership, first of all in the message we have about Christ, the Gospel, and then in the way we set about working for Christ. Therefore true fellowship is agreeing about what the true message is; we cannot have fellowship with those who disagree about the gospel, for “what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). But in true fellowship we recognize the gift of forgiveness through Christ. As John says, “We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is not possible to truly work together without complete agreement on doctrine, which we show by joining together, for “we ought to show hospitality as we work together for the truth” (3 John 1:8). Fellowship is directly connected with the teaching of Christian doctrine, the Lord’s Supper and prayer in Acts 2:42.

Exclusion from fellowship is the subject of 1 Corinthians 5:1-2; 2 John 1:7-11 and 3 John 1:9-10, and always based on the faith and teaching (public confession) or public, unrepentant sin of the one excluded.

When agreement on doctrine (not necessarily agreement on practice) is discovered with another Christian or church, the two parties are in fellowship. They should not withhold fellowship from one another, unless (in a manner of speaking) for a short time for some clear reason, such as a church informing its members on the following Sunday that someone has joined them. The Scriptures never describe anyone choosing to be in fellowship or voting on it, but only discovering that they are in fellowship, such as when Barnabas went to Antioch “and saw the evidence of the grace of God… and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts” (Acts 11:23). And again, when James, Peter and John recognized the grace given to Paul and Barnabas, they gave them the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9), asking them only to continue to remember the poor (2:10).

Where there is not fellowship, two Christians or Christian groups (or churches) cannot worship together or work together in ministry. Too many churches today ignore this point. But the Holy Spirit commands us through John: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching (of Christ), do not welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work” (2 John 1:10-11). I am prepared to answer my Lord Jesus if he should ask me, “Why didn’t you join in fellowship with heretics?” since the answer is embedded in the question. But what will some say when Jesus demands an answer of them: “Why did you join in fellowship with heretics who denied me?” The answer is certainly not “out of love.” And it cannot be “out of a desire to be one,” since to be “one” with someone who rejects Christ is to reject Christ.

These are serious matters. The doctrine of church fellowship involves a careful examination of faith and teaching, point by point, with Christ at the center and many key teachings all around—like a daisy, as one of our professors describes it—so that if too many petals are removed, one must ask, is it still a daisy? And if there is no center, was it ever a daisy at all? The discussion of church fellowship is especially carried out with a study of Romans 16 and the Epistles of John, but what has been said here might suffice for an introduction.

6 I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

This blessing is a confident prayer. What is this “good work” that God has begun? It is the other great teaching of the Bible after justification, which is sanctification. While justification happens all at once in a moment, sanctification takes a lifetime, and is never complete before a person breathes their last breath. Having been brought to faith, the Christian is refined and tested day by day, sometimes hour by hour, in faith. He is coached in Christian living so that unbelievers will give glory to God (1 Peter 2:12). He is instructed in God’s will and he is reminded of it, so that he will avoid sinful living (1 Thessalonians 4:2-6) and be a useful instrument in God’s kingdom (2 Timothy 2:20-21).

“The day of Christ Jesus” is the day of his return, the Last Day, which is judgment day and the day of the resurrection. But for each Christian, it is also in another sense the day of our death; the day when God’s sanctifying work comes to an end, and our worries about the sinful nature are concluded, as the Christian’s soul is brought to Paradise to await the day when it will be rejoined by the body.

Until then we stumble and fall on account of many temptations and the weakness of the sinful flesh. But God continues to work in us, working repentance that leads to confident faith, put to use in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father, making us “a people holy to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 26:19), to his glory, praise, fame, and honor.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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