1035-45).
In time Jesus announces to His followers that His society, as the true Israel, is to take the place of the Jewish nation, which as such is becoming a massa perclita. Out of this perishing world His
FELLO^ySHIP
FELLOWSHIP
disciples are saved into tlie eternal Kingdom, and as heirs of salvation they are in reality, as they were afterwards called, ' the saints of the New Covenant' (Mk 12'"'-). Before His death the Messiah gave concreteness to this fellowship by a solemn communion with His disciples in the Last Supper, which became the means of makini; real to them the blessings of the New Covenant. Tlie connexion of the Supper with the Paschal meal, which may liere be assumed as having existed, either by anticipation or directly, would sugi'est to the minds of the participants that in this New Covenant they were entering into fellowship with Jehovah, and that they were also binding them- selves together as brothers in a new covenant with God (Mk W^--^). A promise of enlarging fellow- ship fitly closes the Gospel of Matthew in the words, ' Lo, I am with you to the end of the ages ' (28^), and gives us a glimpse of the transition from the earthly to the heavenly life of Jesus.
To sum up, the Sj'uoptic Gospels show us the conception of an eternal Divine Commonwealth, made actual by Jesus in a society welded together by fervent loyalty to Himself as the Christ of God, and pervaded by a life of mutual service to tlie members. He ' brings His followers into true fellowsliip with Jehovah by revealing Him and pardoning their sins. They enjoy the life of a brotherhood, which is true life, in His company.
iii. The Primitive Jewish-Christi.\n Church. — Fellowship is the most real definition of the unity Avliich was a constituent quality of the Early Church. Intercourse, intimate and uni- versal, among brethren, whose life was consecrated by a gracious Divine presence, and thus free from everything secular, constituted the Church as dis- tinctively one. This unity was not expressed by any rigid cohesive organization, not even primarily by the leadership of the Apostles. Indeed, the disciples had been warned by their Lord not to allow themselves to be called ':Master'(Mt SS'"). A company of baptized brethren, they had received the Holy Spirit from their risen Lord, who had welded them into one. His personal gifts were manifest in each brother passionately devoted to his unseen Lord, and so on terms of friendship with all who loved Him.
The Church appears on the stage of the public world as a new sect, holding to the belief that Jesus is Messiah. Outwardly the brethren were probably indistinguishable from good Jew^s, and such organization as thej' had would follow the lines of their former life. But it would seem that they did not think of themselves as a new or- ganization. They were slow to cast loose their hawsers and swing out into the stream as an inde- pendent Churcli. Led by powerful personalities, Peter, John, and James, who had been either intimate or of close kinship with Jesus, they re- garded themselves as the true Israel, and for
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we find that 1 1 organized into .li-tiiirtivr iinuiiiiiini !.■-. nut as 'synagogues,' Imt .-in ■ ihuicln-^' ii^al. 1 ^ I5ufc in these churclie^ llie utmost fretduiii ot ihe indi- vidual, which is essential for true fellowship, prevailed ; for the Church grew not by oHicial initiative, but by the prophetic power of Ihe Holy Spirit impelling the brethren to spread far and wide the good news of tlieir gospel.
Little as the primitive Christians differed out- wardly from the Jewish world, their inner world was a new creation. It was a hrotherliood of Divine origin ; for not only were they baptized into the name of Jesus the Lord nf life, but they hail received the Holy Spirit. How sacred this fellowsliip was is manifest from the terrible punish-
ment meted out to Ananias and Sapphira for violating the mutual trust that made the brother- hood possible (Ac 5).
There were various manifestations of this fellow- ship, (a) It was a house-church. Brethren met as sons round the cummon board in the homes of those who coulil hfst provide accommodation, and partook of a daily meal consecrated to the memory of their unseen but present Lord. They held communion with one another because they held communion with the risen Jesus. Common prayers, songs, and thanksgivings rose to Jehovah from these family groups (Ac 2'^ 4^-^'-).
[li] This fellowship {Koivoivla) found further ex- pression in a life of mutual service, — the rich for the poor, tlie strong for the weak. They rejoiced with those who rejoiced ; they wept with tiiose who wept. In fact, true KOLvwvia could not be better delined than in the words of the Golden Rule — ' Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ' (Mt 7'-). No formal ordinance, such as the community of goods, was enjoined on the brethren ; their love welled forth in such a pure and powerful stream that it made its own channels. All blessings, earthly and spiritual, were spontaneously shared with those who were in need (Ac i-**-^' 4^--'^'').
So we have in the earliest days a true fellowship, a brotherhood united by love to a risen Lortl, whom many of them had known on earth, and led without rivalry by favourite disciples of Jesus, enjoying gifts and graces from the ever present Spirit of their Lord. But that brotherhood gathered in the earthly Zion was nationalistic in sentiment. It was provincial in spirit, especially, it would seem, throughout Jud;ea, where the churches were in villages remote from the world of men.