Welcome to the half-way mark of the A to Z Challenge  – or just beyond it. This is the start of week three and today’s letter ‘K’ is for another word I love – Koinonia.

GotQuestions.org explains the word like this: Koinonia is a Greek word that occurs 20 times in the Bible. Koinonia’s primary meaning is “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” The first occurrence of koinonia is Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Christian fellowship is a key aspect of the Christian life. Believers in Christ are to come together in love, faith, and encouragement. That is the essence of koinonia.

Yesterday evening our pastor preached on 1 Samuel 20, about the covenant that David and Jonathan made with each other. He was speaking about the particular nature of their friendship and the covenant promises they made to one another. After making the agreement (it’s a great story btw, you should go read it), Jonathan says, “remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.” Their friendship and promises were in the context of their common relationship with God. During yesterday’s sermon, the pastor noted that this can be a lonely world, and surely all friendships are valuable. It’s not that we should disregard friendships with with those who don’t share our faith – it’s just acknowledging that friendships with other believers are different.

There is ‘koinonia’ 🙂

Have you ever looked around your church on a Sunday and wondered how you managed to end up part of such a motley crew? Oh… so just me then! Nah… I doubt that.

I’ve been in a few different churches over the years, having moved a few times. I’m always amazed at the mixed bunch I end up in. Quite often there are folk who I’d never hang out with in any other context. There’s nothing wrong with them; it’s just that because of different backgrounds, age, personality, likes/dislikes etc our paths would most likely never cross.

In our natural born family it’s a blood tie that keeps us together. Even if a family is not ‘together’ as such, a blood relative will always be one – even if you never see them. In the family of God, the fellowship, the ‘koinonia’ of the followers of Christ has that same sticking power!

If you’re a Christian then I’m your sister in Christ. If I drive you nuts that’s just hard cheese – we’re stuck with each other 🙂 Kinda nice tho’ eh?