Back in the ’70s we used to talk a lot about “Koinonia.” No, this is not a strange species of fish or a Japanese book store. It is a Greek word that occurs a number of times in the New Testament, mostly in Paul’s writing.<\/p>\n
Koinonia essentially means “partnership” but adds a sense of intimacy to that idea. The standard Greek lexicon says that it means “close association involving mutual interests and sharing, association, communion, fellowship, close relationship (hence a favorite expression for the marital relationship as the most intimate between human beings).” When we speak of “marriage partner” we perhaps capture a lot of the idea behind the word.<\/p>\n
So it’s interesting to see that the Bible uses this word (koinonia) to name the relationship between Christians. In all the following verses, the word put in italics is actually the Greek word “koinonia.”<\/p>\n
We see from all this that a key aspect of being a Christian is koinoia \u2014 the sharing of our lives with one another at a deep level. Unfortunately this is often not the case in our churches.<\/p>\n
The reason for this can be summarized in the following principle:<\/p>\n
No human institution can be built on love.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
What I mean by this is that love cannot be institutionalized or programmed. One cannot produce love by organizational methods, or by setting up an environment such that those who are present will automatically love one another.<\/p>\n
Love is a choice. Each person must choose to engage with others in love. One can only speak a Word of love and introduce it as a possibility. “Here is a place where we love one another; you can be part of it, if you want.” And of course as Paul says, “Love must be genuine.”<\/p>\n
Institutions and organizations can affect appearances. We can program what people will do in a given setting. But we cannot program hearts.<\/p>\n
This is why there is such an onus upon each of us to love one another. Our churches are formed and take shape as the people who are the church choose to love as Christ loved \u2014 or fail to do so. If we avoid one another or hold back our lives, we may have a long-lasting human organization but it will not be fully what God intended it to be. If we truly love one another we may just be a brief flash of light in time, but we will be a true<\/i> light \u2014 we will be the true church of God.<\/p>\n
Koinonia means that we buy into one another. We allow others access. We open ourselves to one another. We share our lives \u2014 “our own selves.” This is more than just a warm fuzzy feeling \u2014 though it is true that such feelings are often (but not always) part of what I’m talking about. We enjoy one another \u2014 and this is both the means and the reward.<\/p>\n
And of course this must happen in a unique<\/i> way for each group. Again, it cannot be programmed or put down as a set of rules. We can only take the leap of love. But we do so in confidence that by taking that leap we are playing God’s game and following his agenda.<\/p>\n
And so the question arises: what does it mean to you to have koinonia with your brothers and sisters in Christ? Is there any way you can make this concrete? Think about it and pray that your love grow more and more each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in the ’70s we used to talk a lot about “Koinonia.” No, this is not a strange species of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8,12],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","tag-christianity","tag-unity","has-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":509,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}