A call to fellowship

by Matt Slick

Why did God create us?  This is a deep question and theologians have been discussing it for centuries.  Let me throw in my two cents' worth.

I suspect that there are many reasons why God created us:  for His glory, to have people to love, to demonstrate His greatness, etc., and I am sure they are all true.  But, there is another one that I want to focus on:  Fellowship.

1 Cor. 1:9, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (NASB).  In Greek, the word "fellowship," is "koinonia."  It is also translated as "communion."  God wants to have an intimate communion, a close fellowship with us.  Remember the garden of Adam and Eve and when they sinned?  Who hid themselves?  Adam and Eve.  Who went looking for who?  It was God looking for them.  After the expulsion from the garden, after the flood, and at the time of the Exodus, God says to the people, "And let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them." Again, who is seeking to dwell with who?  It is God seeking man.  Take a look at John 1:1,14 which says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." The word "dwelt" is the Greek "skano-o" and it also means to tabernacle, to tent, to dwell among.  Again, it is the Lord who is seeking us, who is dwelling among us. Of course, we see that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16), and this signifies that the Lord is in us and with us.

This simply tells us that God is a God of fellowship, that He desires to have people to be with and to love.  God is love (1 John 4:8), and the nature of love is to give (John 3:16).  God desires that we have an intimate relationship with us through His Son, Jesus.

Do you have that intimacy with Jesus?  Do you spend time with Him talking to Him?  Do you seek the relationship and fellowship with God that He desires and has manifested throughout history -- especially in the cross?

Seek Jesus.  Have fellowship with Him.  It is what God wants.