Meditation:
Hindrances to Christian fellowship
Tom Johns, Dallas, TX
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Gen. 3:8-10
Broken Fellowship
The first instance of broken fellowship is found in Genesis 3 at the first advent of sin into the Garden. The first two chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters of the Bible [Rev. 21 & 22] are pictures of unbroken fellowship with God and mankind. In between these two sections, we have 1185 chapters which are strewn with the stories of broken fellowship: between God and man and between man and man.
What was lost in the Garden will be restored only in the eternal state and until then God’s people live under constant tension and unfulfilled longings. The great British poet John Milton who lived in the early 18th century composed the following lines in his epic poem, Paradise Lost.
Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful Seat. [Paradise Lost 1:1]
While we anxiously wait for the ‘Greater Man, restore us and regain the blissful Seat.’ We struggle through this life trying to fulfill our calling to maintain fellowship with each other. Acts 2:42 and several other portions of scriptures exhort us to do so.
Yet, we often fail in this regard. What are some of the hindrances we face? Let me summarize those, though not exhaustively here. Each needs individual attention with illustrations from the Bible but let me just highlight one primary cause that could by default could eliminate the rest.
Hindrances to fellowship
Sin and guilt, unforgiveness and bitterness; lack of transparency; faith and practice; personal conflicts; misplaced priorities; lack of spiritual commitment etc., are some of the contributing factors creating hindrances to proper fellowship with God and men. Among all such listed vices, the sin and guilt stand out as the primary cause and until that is removed, nothing else could flourish or even begin to germinate.
Guilty as charged
Guilt is the result of having violated a specific rule or law. When we cross a moral, ethical, or legal line, we are guilty. This is true even if we did not know a line was crossed. Guilt is primarily a state or condition, not a feeling. According to the Bible, we are all guilty before God [Romans 3:10 & 23.]
What God did in the garden by covering the shame and nakedness of Adam and Eve was a picture of what He would do thousands of years later to cover the guilt of everyone who trusts in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. [Romans 10:9-10]
Unbelievers stand guilty before God in that they have not trusted Christ as the Savior. Unbelievers experiencing feelings of guilt should let those feelings lead them to Jesus Christ who can declare them guilt-free. Their guilty feelings are necessary and are designed to create in them a desire for forgiveness.
In them the promise of Romans 8:1, “therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” becomes a reality. God has placed all our sin on His own Son as we read in 2Cor. 5:21. He has taken the righteousness of Christ and granted it to us. That divine exchange guarantees our acceptance by God and eternal life with Him.
All of us who are saved by the grace of God are called by Him for the purpose of being sanctified. 1Thess. 4:7, “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.” We are challenged in that passage to remain true to this calling by displaying the fruit of the Spirit, listed in Galatians 5:22.
When we are displaying the fruit of the Spirit in our lives the rest of the hindrances to fellowship will gradually disappear. We can also take it to heart that “He who had began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” [Phil. 1:6] May God grant us His continued mercy to this wonderful end.
