Fellowship
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Often the members of a congregation will gather together for what may be called a "fellowship". Usually, this is a meal everyone enjoys together. In one sense, though, this isn’t too terribly different from other types of gatherings we might enjoy.
For example, if we should invite friends and family to our home to celebrate Christmas, New Year’s, birthdays, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, anniversaries, graduations, or whatever, the serving of food will always be a main part of the planned activities.
What makes the gathering significant is the purpose for which the folks have gathered, not so much what they do. This also is what makes our gatherings together as the church most significant; not that we might eat together, but that we have gathered as the family of God to enjoy fellowship as one in Him. Yet, the meaning of fellowship goes much further and deeper than even this.
At First John the first chapter, John wrote at verse three that he declared unto his hearers and readers all that he had seen and heard with regard to the spiritual things revealed to him. Any who would receive and believe and obey these things would have fellowship with him, and his fellowship was with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Fellowship in the church, you see, is far more than the spreading of tables with food to be enjoyed together. Fellowship is the common belief in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which orders the life of every sincere believer in such a way that he finds Christianity in common with everyone else who also believes and obeys the truth.
One can have fellowship with other people without having fellowship with Christ, for many have had unity of thought based on error. Thus, they agree with each other, but not with the Lord.
When fellowship is realized in it’s truest and most spiritual form, believers in the one true gospel are coming together as the church in fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself.