Let’s Go Together

and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake.  Philemon 1:6  NASB

Fellowship of your faith – What is “fellowship of your faith”?  It’s an odd expression, don’t you think?  Oh, perhaps you never questioned this phrase.  Perhaps you thought, “Well, Paul just means church.”  That’s where fellowship happens, right?  But the phrase is peculiar.  It’s almost as if Paul is saying that faith occurs in community, that your faith (singular) is a function of our faith (plural).  After all, he continues with a statement about effectiveness and knowledge, as if to imply that unless there is a communal orientation, neither effectiveness nor the knowledge of every good thing can actually occur.

The Greek doesn’t help too much (but it does help a little).  We recognize koinōnía although we have to remind ourselves that it does not mean “church.”  In fact, koinōnía really means to share in something, and sharing requires more than one.  Faith is participation, not possession.  That means faith comes about in an environment of difference.  You and I participate with each other in an active pursuit of a pathway toward the Messiah.  We walk together.  Faith is the living bond between God and us, and between us.  If I may be so bold, I might suggest that faithfulness is sharing; the vulnerability that comes from traveling the road together.  It’s not what you know or what you believe.  It’s where you’ve been and the story you have to tell me.  And unless you share that essential part of you with me, we won’t have faith.  Oh, we can believe all those propositions and say all the right things, but we will be separated, solitary, isolated, and I’m pretty sure that none of those are descriptions of a journey in God’s direction.

Paul writes koinōnía pístoes.  The Greek pístis is a genitive here.  That means it’s a possessive.  It’s “fellowship,” but of a certain kind.  It’s as if Paul wrote, “the fellowship’s faith.”  Clearly, plural.  Clearly, communal.  Faith won’t get far without others.

Since we all know this to be true, why do we find it so difficult to embrace?  We could chalk it up to the Western fixation with certainty.  Groups are opinionated.  Not everyone agrees with us.  They’re wrong, of course, but it’s still annoying to listen to them.  We want final answers and a creedal, doctrinal faith provides those—for the “elect,” that is, those who think exactly as we do.  That’s the West we inherited and it’s difficult to let go of it.  But there’s a much more practical reason.  koinōnía pístoes requires vulnerability.  It’s excruciating to share what I would rather keep private.  koinōníapístoes is uncomfortable.  So we tiptoe in, revealing only what we are forced to reveal in order to pretend we have fellowship.  And as soon as our revelations get too close to those dark corners, we retreat to comfortable doctrinal conformity.  After all, we’re all sinners, so what’s there left to say.

Paul’s letter is to a slave owner about slave ethics.  More than that, it’s about human dignity on the path toward the Messiah.  Prickly issues will come up.  Vulnerability will be necessary.  Paul doesn’t avoid it.  Straightforward into the mess is his approach.  I wonder what I would do.

Topical Index: koinōnía pístoes, fellowship of faith, vulnerability, Philemon 1:6