Fellowship is one of our greatest needs. Homes, cars, jewelry, money are things we want but none of those things can satisfy our need of fellowship with other people.
We are not made to live alone. Human beings are hard-wired to need other human beings. This universal human need is summed up well in the familiar saying, “No man is an island.” An old song captures this eternal truth: “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” The greater truth is that there are no people who do not need other people.
Early in our marriage my wife gave me an anniversary gift for which she paid one dollar. It was a small wooden plaque on which two rabbits are painted, along with the words, “We Need Each Other.” That plaque is more precious than gold to me. It symbolized a new day in our relationship. We had gone through a few troubled years during which we sometimes expressed our frustration with each other by pretending we did not need each other. With our Lord’s help we overcame that dreadful attitude and found new joy in affirming our need of each other.
We were married 68 years and that plaque remained on my desk until Dean died. Every day it reminded me that I needed Dean and she needed me. My grief since her passing has been all the more burdensome because the privilege of meeting each other’s needs is gone forever. However, my sorrow turns to joy when I recall what we believed together – that we were “meant for each other.” That precious memory is a healing treasure.
Genuine fellowship with others is enriching in many venues – on a golf course, listening to a symphony orchestra, serving on a mission team in a third world country, building a home for a poor family, playing games with others, eating out together – and a thousand other situations. But for me, the church is the best answer to the human need for meaningful fellowship.
A beautiful name for the church is “a fellowship of believers.” The church at its best is a fellowship, a loving, redemptive fellowship. The authentic church is a gathering of friends who come together to praise God but also to love and encourage one another. But as great is our need for public worship, greater still is our need for the refreshing, life-giving fellowship that occurs when “two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus.” There are few things more wonderful than realizing the Lord’s presence with us as we meet with our brothers and sisters to break bread together, study the scriptures, share our burdens and blessings, and pray together.
The true church is a fellowship where people, despite their weaknesses, may love and be loved. It is not a fellowship of perfect people but a gathering of flawed people, each of whom is accepted despite their flaws. While some people may find meaningful fellowship in a bar or tavern, a more transforming fellowship is available in a church. There, hopefully, there is always an atmosphere of forgiveness. There we are taught that because God has forgiven us in spite of our sins, we can forgive others in spite of their sins. To feel accepted and loved despite our shortcomings is truly unspeakable joy.
God’s plan is for the church to offer more than fellowship with people; it should also provide fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the company of believers we learn that God promises us a fellowship that extends into eternity, a relationship that lasts forever. That is why we find Christians singing joyfully, “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
Yes, we are hard-wired with the need to belong. And it was God who did the wiring. He made us with this universal need and He has provided the fellowship of believers to meet this need gloriously. Since many of our brothers and sisters remain outside this rich fellowship, surely we need to say to our world what the Apostle John said to his own: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Imagine what God could do with our testimony if we who are Christians were willing to say to all our neighbors who remain outside the fellowship of believers, “We need each other.”