Two passages of Scripture have taken a deep root in my soul lately and I have understood the beautiful truth found in them.  The passages almost seem to be in complete contrast to each other but both teach a beautiful truth about God’s design for relational community.  One speaks of joy and the other of burdens but both attest to a love for the church and desire for it to live in relational community.  Let me provide the text and then show what I mean..

“Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of my concern for all the churches ” (2 Cor. 11:28).

“make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and intent on one purpose” (Phil 2:2).

You may have already seen the connection between these two verses but I don’t want to assume it is clear. First, it is necessary to know that there is an aspect to our being created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) that is sometimes missed, which is us being created to be relational beings. Notice in Genesis 1:26 the word “our,” “Let us make man in our image.” The reason we are created to be relational beings is because God is a perfect representation of relational community.  There is perfect harmony and community that exists in the Godhead (see the doctrine of the Trinity, a good book for this is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by Bruce Ware). The Godhead is the perfect representation of relational community and therefore an aspect to our imaging God is that we are created to be relational.  This has a lot of implications for us to consider but I am primarily focusing on the implication present by the apostle Paul in two different letters.  Let’s begin with the later and make our way to the former.

Our joy is complete in the fellowship of others

For those of us who long for a sweet fellowship and joy in our walk with the Lord we need to see this point.  Our joy is partially dependent on the fellowship of others.  What do I mean by this? I mean that we find an extra amount joy in the fellowship of others, a complete joy. This fellowship is both their fellowship with God and their fellowship with us and others.  Paul tells us very plainly that his “joy is complete” when the Bride is “of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and intent on one purpose.” His is showing us that our joy is partially dependant on the fellowship of the Bride of Christ. 

Why is this so?  It is because he is infatuated with the praise and proclamation of the name Jesus Christ. He has just finished done telling the church in Philippi that for him “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), and it is his “hope that Christ will be exalted in his body, whether by life or by death” (Phil 1:20). He is fixated solely on the exaltation of Christ and he knows that the fellowship of the Bride brings forth more exaltation. 

I have experienced this joy lately as I have watched students of the College and Young Adult Ministry I lead and other men I minister along side of live out this true fellowship that Paul describes in Philippians 2:2. My joy has been complete as I have seen students praying with each other and sharing scripture with each other. It was full when I woke up and spent by morning with 7 men who are longing to know God more and willing to sacrifice sleep to meet together for this endeavor.  Our joy will fail to be fully complete until we see the joy that is found in longing for the fellowship of the Bride to be pure and complete. 

A biblical burden is found in the disrupted fellowship of others

But I have also see what Paul shows us in 2 Corinthians 11. Paul is sharing his sufferings with the church in Corinth and at the end he mentions how his concern for the churches is a part of his sufferings.  He wants to let the church know that he one of his many sufferings is a concern for the fellowship of the church.  We can know this because most of his letters have a familiar ring to them in regards to unity.  This is because he understands that we are created to be relational beings and our joy is connected to the fellowship of the Bride.  There is a biblical burden when this fellowship is interrupted.  There is a natural burden on our hearts when someone we know is held captive by personal sin and their fellowship with the Lord is interrupted.  We long for them to be in fellowship with Christ because our joy is found in Him being exalted.  This is because the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to being glory to the Son (John 16:14). And this Spirit has been given to us in order to accomplish this with our lives. There is also a natural burden on our hearts when the fellowship of the Bride is interrupted by sin.  When there is turmoil in our churches our hearts should be troubled because the beauty of the Bride is not shinning as bright as it should.  God has designated the collective Bride to be the display of His majesty (Ephesians 2:10) and that is why we are burdened by the interrupted fellowship of the Bride, the majesty of God is not seen as clearly when our fellowship is disrupted.

This too I have understood more clearly recently as my heart has been troubled by the interruption of fellowship within the Bride (this being all those bought with the blood of Christ not just the local church). My heart has been heavy whenI have seen both the sin in my life that disrupts my fellowship with Christ and the sin in those around me that does this as well.  All too clearly do I understand the words of Paul when he relates this to being a part of his suffering.  My plea is for us to turn from our sin so we can fellowship with each other and the Lord in the way He has created us to fellowship.

Take the time to take this in…

This is a wonderful truth when you take it in.  God has created us as relational beings, not just for the purpose of a relationship with Him, but also for us to live in perfect relational community with each other.  This is a perfection that will come one day when He brings forth the new heavens and new earth.  But now, as we wait for this glorious day, He has given us the privelege of experiencing the joy He has in His Son which is shown through the love of the Bride. This is a reason why we spur one another towards love and good works (Hebrews 10:24) because our joy is complete when unity in love exists.

May our joy abound in our fellowship with God and others and their fellowship with each other.! May we desire for the glory of God to shine in the unity of the Bride!

- One experiencing the dichotomy of complete joy and biblical burden coexisting in my soul