Koinonia
ICS Daily Devotions

The church is made up of imperfect people. It takes time for people to grow spiritually, and it takes time to renew our minds to think like Christ and not let our carnal nature have the better of us. Nevertheless, the house must be put in order before any church can be an effective witness in society.

1 Corinthians 3:3 (NKJV) for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

If Christians refuse to grow, they will remain as carnal Christians forever and the carnal nature will have ascendency over the new creation. We must be careful not to fall into the same trap as the churches that the Apostle Paul was writing to. We can be proud, opinionated, and critical towards leadership, and we can be judgemental over decisions made and how the ministries are run. We must be especially careful when we are a church filled with people from diverse backgrounds, a variety of cultures, different denominations and different practices or liturgy.

Philippians 2:1-2 (NKJV) Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

The word “fellowship” is “koinonia” in Greek which means the deepest fellowship with God and fellow believers. The Holy Spirit binds us together with the love of Christ that flows out of our hearts. There will be an absence of strife when we are in deep communion and partnership.

God puts us all under one roof regardless of our backgrounds. It doesn’t matter whether we are Pentecostal, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterians, Brethren, Charismatic, because it is God’s love that is common among us. We are in “koinonia”. It is through this love that we have for one another that we show the world we are disciples of Jesus Christ! Therefore, we should embrace Jesus Christ and place the emphasis of preaching the Gospel as our top priority! It is a wonderful opportunity for us to practise what the Word of God says when it comes to being united as a body of believers.

We can do it because what we have in common is the love of Christ flowing out of our hearts and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our love for Christ and for one another should be able to bring us together as we grow in our home church. The Holy Spirit will work in us to lay down our differences. We have a supernatural bonding although we are of different nationalities because we are in Christ, and therefore, we are the church as one big united family.

Sermon Series: ServeFest