"THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY"

"And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." [Ephesians 3:9].

         The Greek word for "fellowship" is "koinonia" and is quite synonymous with "communion," literally meaning: "the act of using a thing in common."
         One short look at the negative side should prove to be beneficial in making a look at the positive side even more glorious and bright, so note:
         2 Corinthians 6:14, "But what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion (fellowship) hath light with darkness?"  Ephesians 5:11, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
         In order to have communion with darkness, unrighteousness, etc. there has to be something in common which we can use together. Certainly that which is common with darkness cannot be used by that which is light, or vice versa. Darkness cannot use anything inherent in light, so what fellowship can there be? In fact, darkness is actually light on its lowest vibrations, and one would have to stoop to that level in order to fellowship with the same. That is why, if we are truthful, we have to admit that there has been very little fellowship in what has been called "fellowship." Once God has led you to higher planes of light, you have to ignore, set aside, even leave that light if you insist on fellowshipping with that which remains in shadows and darkness.
         Then, as long as everyone has their own doctrine, their own theology, their own pet ideas and interpretations, everything so individualistic in nature, there is no real basis for fellowship-- unless it be, as is so often the case, some form of binding together for a negative cause, two of you against the same thing. We have become very weary of "negative fellowship."
         Betimes, men have thought to form a creed, set up a dogma unto which they all would ascribe, and so all speaking the same thing, they wishfully hoped it would make a basis for fellowship. But because it was MAN'S, carnal man's creed, it still did not work, except in the measure that everyone, like parrots, repeated these same ideas without question, and without progression into more perfect truth.
         There can be such a thing as all speaking the same thing, when it is the Spirit of God that quickens the truth, and all receive their inspiration from Him. Thus, we foresee that day when "the watchmen see eye to eye." [Ephesians 4:13].
         In some of its positive aspects, we read, "God is faithful by Whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." [1 Corinthians 1:9]. For "truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His, Son Jesus Christ." [1 John 1: 3].
         This is the sound basis for all true fellowship. What is it that we have in the Father and in the Son that we can USE IN COMMON? The foremost is "LIGHT" "This is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we do lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship." [1 John 1:5-7].
         "IN HIM was life: and the life was the light of men." [ John 1:4]. Life and light go together. Where the LIFE of God is, there will be its expression, LIGHT.  And if we walk, meaning TO GO ON, in the light, then we shall keep growing in Him. But as soon as we draw back from the light, and enter into the realms where it is shady, then we are turned towards the shadows of death.
         We have been called into the fellowship of the SON, and when we have fellowship with the Son, we also have fellowship with the Father, because the Father and the Son are ONE. "Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee." [John 17:21]. The basis of our fellowship with the Father IS HIS SON, and the cleansing of the blood which He shed for us. The basis of our fellowship in the Son is that because of His redemption WE HAVE THE SAME FATHER, even as Jesus said, "I ascend to My Father, and to your Father; to My God, and to your God." [John 20:17]. All of the Father's heart is revealed to us through the Son, and while we are His offspring by reason of the fact that "He is the Father of spirits," yet now He becomes our Father because of the NEW CREATION LIFE which we share in Christ Jesus. Truly this becomes a blessed fellowship.
         Now Paul speaks of "the fellowship of the mystery." There are some truths which can only be SHARED IN COMMON by those who have been duly processed by the way of the Cross, death to self, set apart unto the Lord, and led by His Spirit into more truth. When someone suddenly says, "that's too deep for me," if you want to share fellowship with them, you have to leave the mystery truths and find a common basis on what they do know, as far as they have gone in their walk with Christ. An adult can enjoy a short conversation with a child, but they also need that in-depth sharing with their own peers. Therefore we are admonished to grow up into Him, and be no more children.
         But Paul goes even further, in his understanding of the fellowship of the mystery, for he recognized that this fellowship would ultimately include all man. Instead of revealing these doctrines to a select few only, as in the Pagan mysteries, they were to be revealed to all nations, and to all classes of mankind; even though hitherto kept secret, and hidden, as it were, in the bosom of the Almighty, from the foundation of the world-- for thus ancient are all the purposes of God.
         Phillips gives: "To make plain to all men the meaning of that divine secret which He who created everything has kept hidden from creation until now."
         Moffatt says it is to "enlighten all men upon the new order of that divine secret . . "
         Certainly, "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." [Habakkuk 2:14]. "And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest." [Hebrews 8:11].
        Fellowship-- the act of sharing in common. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order . . . " [1 Corinthians 15:22-23]. As every man is regenerated, to receive the LIFE of Jesus Christ, and oneness with the Father, they shall also be enriched with the knowledge of HIS mysteries-- they shall KNOW.  Because, Moffatt goes on, in his translation, He is "intending to let the full sweep of the divine wisdom be disclosed now by the church (His called out)."
         The Amplified-- "The purpose is that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known . . ."
         God is pleased to make known the riches of the glory of His mysteries, and therefore "Him we preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing every one and instructing every one in all wisdom, (in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that we may present every person mature-- full-- grown, fully initiated, complete and perfect-- in Christ." [Colossians 1:28, Amplified].
         THE FULL SWEEP of the divine wisdom, unfolding its infinite variety, till every one is FULLY INITIATED. Remember, the very meaning of the Greek word for "mystery" is "what is known only to the initiated." Yet Paul foresaw the purpose of God to be such that EVERY ONE, every person, would ultimately be brought into this initiated state. That is the coverage of the fellowship of the mystery. We stand in awe at such a tremendous purpose of God.
         But there is more. We note that several translations give the word "administration" instead of "fellowship," causing it to read, as in Rotherham, "And to bring to light-- What is the administration of the sacred secret which hath been hidden away from the ages in God. " And this Paul also answers, to wit, that it "might be made known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God." [Ephesians 3:10].
         Through the church, by means of the church-- and remember, in the chapter on "the mystery of the church" we discovered that God has apprehended those whom He "CALLS OUT"-- separating them from the world, and unto Himself that He might work in them the fullness of His redemptive work, and that they might become the display vessels through whom the riches of His grace shall be revealed to all men. What has been a secret will be a secret no longer when these are fully manifested.
         It is His church, i.e. ekklesia, His called out ones, that are now growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, coming unto the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, that are being initiated into the mystery of His will, of His purpose, of His plan of the ages. They are being built up into Him, to become that administrative body through whom the expansion of the fellowship of the mystery shall be carried out. For they become "labourers together with God."
         But once Paul included the qualifying phrase, that it was to be made known "by the church, " he went even further in his astonishing message, that it was all "TO THE INTENT that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies" that this manifest wisdom would also be made known.
         In its own time and dispensation, Paul also taught that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places ( literally, in the heavenlies )." [Ephesians 6:12].
         There is a contest taking place now, a wrestling, which is designed for our development and overcoming. But it is a fact that there is a victory also in view, for "there was war in heaven . . . and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."
[ Revelation 12:7,11]. And once they have fully OVERCOME, so that they can say, as did Jesus, "the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me," [John 14:30] then this same church will also be used to INSTRUCT, discipline, train, develop, and bring into a state of rightness again all of that which has been turned out of the way, and gone into unrighteousness.
        We see the ultimate victory-- how that "every creature which is IN HEAVEN, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." [Revelation 5:13].
         To enlighten all men ? Yes! To enlighten every principality and power in the heavenlies? Yes! Here is a calling and a ministry that excels anything that we have ever comprehended heretofore. with Paul we ask, "Who is sufficient for these things?" [2 Corinthians 2:16].  And glimpsing the tremendous portent of such a high, holy, heavenly calling, we readily acknowledge, "not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is OF GOD; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament . . . " [2 Corinthians 3:5-6].
        It is GOD who apprehends, "no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God." [Hebrews 5:4]. It is also GOD who works within us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, that we might be filled and prepared for every good work. And it is GOD who shall complete the work in us until as ONE IN HIM we shall fulfill that purpose which HE has cherished in His own heart, of gathering together in one all things in Christ.
         Indeed, there is tremendous fellowship in this mystery -- as we share in common with "those of like precious faith" in our present processings, and then to witness that expansion until the earth is filled-- yea, and the very heavens also, with the glory of our God, that He might be ALL IN ALL.   We would walk very softly, yielded, surrendered, His will to become, that we might be to His praise.
         In Philippians 4:12 the words, "I am instructed . . . " are translated by Moffatt as "I have been initiated into the secret, " for the Greek word is "mueo" and literally means-- "to initiate into mysteries." God has many ways and means of providing instruction, including His judgments, for "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." [Isaiah 26:9]. But He uses all these things for our profit, that we might "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."
         He also is preparing HIS INSTRUCTORS-- those who will be "gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; lf God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." [2 Timothy 2:24-25].
         Only those who have themselves been fully initiated into the secrets, the mysteries of God, will be able to so instruct others. But the promise is sure, "They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me." [John 6:45]. Hearing, learning, coming-- until "ALL shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. " [Hebrews 8:11].
        The fellowship of the mystery is expanding-- He is steadily drawing to Himself, He shall not cease until "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the Governor among the nations." [Psalm 22: 27-28].  Amen.

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