religiousaffections

Our value of biblical community comes from the Greek word koinonia, which is translated “fellowship” in Acts 2:42.

Koinonia means “having a share with someone in something.” And there is no doubt that when we use this word in the context of Christian community we are talking about a “common participation in Christ.”

Author and pastor Bruce Milne writes, “John Donne once said, No man is an island. Whatever truth this statement holds for men and women in general – there can be no doubting its truth for the Christian in particular. To be a Christian, if it means anything at all, means being gathered out of isolation into the corporate life of the body of Christ (the local church). Christian islands simply do not exist! In Christ we belong together.” *From his book We Belong Together

Aristides was a pagan man that lived during the time of the early church. He watched this group of people intently and this is what he wrote:

“They abstain from all impurity in the hope of the reward that is to come in another world.  As for their servants or handmaids or children they persuade them to become Christians by the love they have for them and when they have become so they call them, without distinction, brothers.  They do not worship strange gods and they walk in all humility and kindness and falsehood is not found among them and they love one another.  When they see the stranger they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as over a true brother.  And if there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities they will fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.  They observe scrupulously the commandment of their Messiah.  They live honestly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them.  Every morning and all hours on account of the goodness of God toward them they praise and laud Him and over their food and their drink they render Him thanks. And I have no doubt that the world stands by reason of the intercession of Christians. Such is the law of the Christians and such is their conduct.”