Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you!<\/p>\n
Koinonia<\/em>\u00a0is the fellowship of believers.\u00a0 In Old Testament language, it is pictured by \u201cbrothers living together in unity\u201d (Ps 133:1), in New Testament language, it is depicted as life together in \u201cone body\u201d.\u00a0 The church is the body of Christ, composed of many parts, with every part of the body equipped for works of service.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>And He\u00a0gave\u00a0some\u00a0as\u00a0apostles, and some\u00a0as\u00a0prophets, and some\u00a0as\u00a0evangelists, and some\u00a0as\u00a0pastors and\u00a0teachers,\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>for the equipping of the\u00a0saints for the work of service, to the building up of\u00a0the body of Christ;\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>until\u00a0we all attain to\u00a0the unity of the faith<\/u>, and of the\u00a0<\/sup>knowledge of the Son of God, to a\u00a0mature man, to the measure of the stature\u00a0which belongs to the\u00a0fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:11-13)<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus gave to the church \u201csome as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers\u201d.\u00a0 These are workers of God, not workers of men.\u00a0 They are not working\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>the saints but are\u00a0equipping<\/em>\u00a0the saints.\u00a0 To equip (original\u00a0katartizo<\/em>) has the connotation of \u201cto mend\u201d or \u201cto complete\u201d.\u00a0 In the gospels, this word is translated as \u201cmend\u201d in the context of a fisherman mending his net:<\/p>\n Going on from there He saw two other brothers,\u00a0<\/sup>James the\u00a0son\u00a0of Zebedee, and\u00a0John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father,\u00a0mending\u00a0<\/strong>their nets; and He called them. (Mt 4:21)<\/em><\/p>\n If the nets have holes, they must be mended so that the nets can be used to catch fish.\u00a0 If there is insufficient preparation for works of service, then the equipping must be made complete, so that the workers can do their work.\u00a0 The worker\u2019s responsibility is to equip the saints, so that each person can do his part well.\u00a0 A healthy church does not employ outsiders to do God\u2019s work, rather, the whole body should unite together to do God\u2019s work.\u00a0 The work of God is to build up the body of Christ.\u00a0 It is not some religious activity used to attract others to follow a religion.\u00a0 If we do not understand the truth regarding this, we will have different approaches to ministry.\u00a0 To illustrate this point, take for example our church\u2019s Christmas Eve worship service.\u00a0 Our church never holds a \u201cChristmas Eve party\u201d, only a \u201cChristmas Eve worship service\u201d.\u00a0 A Christmas Eve party is a religious event, using the name of Jesus Christ to have social gatherings, raffle drawings, talent shows, Santa\u2019s gift-giving, and other similar activities.\u00a0 On the other hand, a Christmas Eve worship service is a time to worship the Lord and celebrate the birth of Christ through the reading of Scripture, the singing of hymns, and the preaching of a message.\u00a0 The Christmas Eve party advertises religion, while the Christmas Eve worship service builds up the church.<\/p>\n The building up of the church is not for the purpose of a grander building or a larger attendance, but it is to \u201cattain to the unity of the faith\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cFaith\u201d (original\u00a0pistis<\/em>, a common word in the New Testament, referring to faith or the content of one\u2019s faith) represents the substance of faith, and what we believe in.\u00a0 One of the characteristics of\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0is that believers have the same beliefs and hold to the same convictions.\u00a0 These beliefs are not mere theology or doctrine.\u00a0 They come from knowing Jesus Christ the son of God.\u00a0 How can one know God\u2019s Son?\u00a0 By receiving the revelation of the Bible, because the Bible \u201ctestifies about Jesus\u201d (Jn 5:39).\u00a0 If we are to attain to the unity of the faith, we must study the Scriptures together.<\/p>\n The Bible is not a book of theology, nor a list of doctrines, but it is the word of God.\u00a0 Some people think that they can understand the truth by studying theology or memorizing some doctrines.\u00a0 That is the foolish thinking of foolish people.\u00a0 If you believe such a person, you are even more foolish than he is.\u00a0 We have studied theology, and we know the doctrines, yet we put them aside only to use them for reference, because we trust solely in the word of God.\u00a0 If God\u2019s people want to know God\u2019s Son, they must trust in the word of God.\u00a0 To be adequately equipped to do God\u2019s work, we must strive to understand what the Bible teaches.<\/p>\n All Scripture is\u00a0inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for\u00a0training in righteousness;\u00a0so that\u00a0the man of God may be adequate,\u00a0equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cTo be adequate\u201d (original\u00a0artios<\/em>) and \u201cto equip\u201d come from the same root word, both having the meaning of \u201cto mend\u201d or \u201cto complete\u201d.\u00a0 Whether you want to be equipped for \u201cthe work of service\u201d or \u201cfor every good work\u201d, you must trust in God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n Praise God that in the Father\u2019s eyes, we have already been made one in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 Even so, we ought still to continue to \u201cattain to the unity of the faith\u201d.\u00a0 Jesus and his disciples placed utmost importance on teaching the truth.\u00a0 People come from different backgrounds and live different lives, so it is not enough to just believe in the same God, we must also study God\u2019s word together.\u00a0 The church can only attain unity when each member of the body aligns himself with God\u2019s word.\u00a0 Brothers and sisters, a church that upholds the truth has unity, a church that does not uphold the truth does not have unity.\u00a0 Maybe you wish to unite the church by holding seminars for psychological self-help or to tackle social issues.\u00a0 If you think that such events can build unity among the people, you will find that it is a futile pursuit and nothing more than a fool\u2019s dream.\u00a0 The church is a body of faith and can only reach unity if she walks in the truth.<\/p>\n The word\u00a0koinonia<\/em>\u00a0comes from the New Testament.\u00a0\u00a0It means \u201ccommon being\u201d, a word that depicts a group of people sharing life together in Christ.\u00a0 These people are all \u201cin Christ\u201d and have all believed in Christ (hereafter termed \u201cChrist-believers\u201d), and not just believed in a religion (hereafter termed \u201creligious people\u201d).\u00a0 Christ-believers are in Christ, but religious people are not in Christ and have no part in salvation nor do they have new life.\u00a0 Christ-believers are true brothers, but religious people are false brothers (Gal 2:4), with all the dangers that false brotherhood could entail (2 Cor 11:26).\u00a0 Christ-believers are God\u2019s people, but religious people are not and are merely onlookers (Ex 12:38).\u00a0 They are called \u201cthe rabble\u201d in the Bible and caused trouble in the desert (Num 11:4).\u00a0 The greatest difference between Christ-believers and religious people is that Christ-believers have new life that is from God, and they hunger for God\u2019s word, \u201clike newborn babies, (who) long for the\u00a0pure\u00a0milk of the word\u201d (1 Pet 2:2).\u00a0 Religious people have not been born again and do not have new lives, and thus have no appetite for God\u2019s word.\u00a0\u00a0They may have been attending church for many years, yet have never read the Bible for themselves.\u00a0 They are only interested in listening to sermons with funny anecdotes or practical life applications, but get annoyed when you try to teach them biblical truth.<\/p>\n These people are false brothers.\u00a0 They have worldly ways of thinking, worldly ways of speaking, and worldly ways of doing things.\u00a0 But they immerse themselves within the church and are fluent in religious language.\u00a0 They use such language in the fellowship meetings, during Bible studies, and around the table at mealtimes.\u00a0 They say things that sound true but are actually false.\u00a0 Regarding these false brothers, Paul admonished the church to \u201cnot yield in subjection to them for even an hour\u201d.<\/p>\n But\u00a0it was\u00a0because of the\u00a0false brethren secretly brought in, who\u00a0had sneaked in to spy out our\u00a0liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to\u00a0bring us into bondage.\u00a0But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that\u00a0the truth of the gospel would remain with you. (Gal 2:4-5)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cFalse brothers\u201d and \u201cgospel truth\u201d cannot coexist.\u00a0 If you allow false brothers among you, then the truth of the gospel will not be in your midst.\u00a0 If you do not allow false brothers among you, then the truth of the gospel will be in your midst.\u00a0 A church that desires to attain to the unity of the faith cannot yield to false brothers.\u00a0 \u201cNot yielding to him\u201d does not mean to exclude him, but to ensure that he is not permitted to distort the truth, and to point out the errors of his ways.\u00a0 We should still treat him with love, with the hope that one day he may believe in Christ and be saved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning, brothers and sisters, may the grace and peace of our Lord be with you! Equipping of the Saints for the Work of Service Koinonia\u00a0is the fellowship of believers.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,57,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotionals","category-koinonia","category-pastor-warren-wang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1959,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions\/1959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbcwla.org\/home\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Attain to the Unity of the Faith<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Do not yield to false brothers<\/strong><\/h3>\n